الكاتب: Multiple References

The Arabian camel (Camelus dromedarius) is an important domestic animal in arid and semi-arid zones. It is used in pastoral societies as a source of meat, hair, hides and milk and for draught and transport. In gulf countries, it is used in sport races, and in other countries, it is a popular zoo animal (Ali et al., 1996). Antibacterial drugs are used in both treatment and prevention programmes for bacterial diseases of camel. Ceftiofur is a semisynthetic third generation cephalosporin, is a broadspectrum antibiotic against both Gram-positive and Gramnegative bacteria including beta-lactamase-producing bacterial strains and some anaerobic bacteria and it is less active against Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Brown et al., 1991; Prescott, 2000). Its antibacterial activity results from the inhibition of mucopeptide synthesis in the cell wall in a similar fashion to other cephalosporins. The thioester bond on ceftiofur is rapidly cleaved to give desfuroylceftiofur, which is further metabolized to a disulfide dimer and various desfuroylceftiofur-protein and amino acid conjugates (Jaglan et al., 1990; Beconi-Barker et al., 1995). Free desfuroylceftiofur is an active metabolite with the intact cephalosporin part of the molecule responsible for biological activity (Jacobson et al., 2006). The pharmacokinetics of ceftiofur in various species was reviewed by Brown et al., 1991, in cattle (Soback et al., 1991; Halstead et al., 1992; Erskine et al., 1995; Brown et al., 1996, 2000) and in sheep (Craigmill et al., 1997). Potentially it will be of therapeutic value in many camel diseases. However, there is limited published information in the camel on the pharmacokinetics of antibacterial agents. In fact, there are no published data on the pharmacokinetics in camel of ceftiofur. The potential value of ceftiofur in the camel is indicated by previous studies describing its clinical efficacy and pharmacokinetics in ruminant species, horse, poultry and pig. This work was designed to study the pharmacokinetic parameters of ceftiofur in healthy adult female camels after intravenous (i.v.) and intramuscular (i.m.) administration routes at a dosage of 2.2 mg/kg b.w. in all animals.