Pharmacokinetics of difloxacin in healthy and E.coli infected broiler chickens

Research Abstract

1-The pharmacokinetics aspects of difloxacin were investigated in healthy and E.coli infected broilers chickens following intravenous and oral administration of a single dose of 10 mg/kg b.wt. 2- After intravenous injection of difloxacin the serum concentration time curves were best described by a two compartment –open model. The distribution and elimination half lives (t0.5α) and (t0.5 el) were 0.10 ± 0.016 h , 3.7 ± 0.08 h in healthy and 0.05±0.005h, 6.42±0.71 h in E.coli infected chickens respectively. The volume of distribution vd (ss) were 3.14±0.11, 9.25±0.43 L/kg, with total body clearance (cl tot) of (0.65±0.018, 1.14±0.1 ml/kg/h), respectively. 3- Following oral administration, difloxacin was absorbed with t 0.5( ab) (0.57±0.06, 0.77±0.04 h) and eliminated with (t0.5 el) (4.7 ±0.34, 3.42 ± 0.19) in normal and infected chicken, respectively. The peak serum concentrations were 1.34± 0.09, 1.05 ±0.06 µg/ml and attained at Tmax of 2.27±0.07, 2.43±0.06h, respectively. The systemic bioavailability of difloxacin following oral administration was 86.24% in healthy chicken and 90.6% in E.coli infected chicken. The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) and the minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) of difloxacin against the field strain of E. coli O78 in vitro were 0.02 µg and 0.04 µg/ml, respectively. 4- These results indicate that, administration of the therapeutic dose of difloxacin has a good activity in the treatment of E.coli infection in chickens. The serum level of the drug was much higher than the MIC of the E.coli O78 strain in both healthy and infected chickens

Research Keywords

pharmacokinetics, broliers , Difloxacin