Pharmacokinetics of florfenicol and its metabolite florfenicol amine in the plasma, urine, and feces of fattening male donkeys following single oral administration

Shijie Liu; Yanxin Guo; Honglei Qu; Yanjie Dong; Shancang Zhao; Tianze Fu; Ruifen Kang; Jie Cheng; Shimeng Huang; Lihong Zhao; Qiugang Ma

doi:10.3389/fvets.2023.1314029

Pharmacokinetics of florfenicol and its metabolite florfenicol amine in the plasma, urine, and feces of fattening male donkeys following single oral administration

Front Vet Sci. 2024 Jan 4:10:1314029. doi: 10.3389/fvets.2023.1314029. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Shijie Liu^#¹, Yanxin Guo^#¹, Honglei Qu^{1

2}, Yanjie Dong³, Shancang Zhao³, Tianze Fu¹, Ruifen Kang¹, Jie Cheng^{1

2}, Shimeng Huang¹, Lihong Zhao¹, Qiugang Ma¹

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Animal Nutrition, College of Animal Science and Technology, China Agricultural University, Beijing, China.
² National Engineering Research Center for Gelatin-Based Traditional Chinese Medicine, Dong-E-E-Jiao Co., Ltd., Liaocheng, China.
³ Shandong Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Jinan, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Florfenicol (FF) is a commonly used antibacterial agent in animals. We investigated the pharmacokinetics of FF and its metabolite florfenicol amine (FFA) in donkeys. Donkeys were administered FF (30 mg/kg bodyweight, p.o.). Pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated using a non-compartmental model. The FF (FFA) pharmacokinetics parameters were characterized by along elimination half-life (t_{1/2 kz}) of 5.92 h (15.95 h), plasma peak concentration (C_max) of 0.13 μg/mL (0.08 μg/mL), and the time taken to reach C_max (T_max) of 0.68 h (0.72 h). The area under plasma concentration-time curve and mean residence time of FF (FFA) in plasma were 1.31 μg·mL^-1·h (0.47 μg·mL^-1·h) and 10.37 h (18.40 h), respectively. The t_{1/2 kz} of FF and FFA in urine was 21.93 and 40.26 h, and the maximum excretion rate was 10.56 and 4.03 μg/h reached at 25.60 and 32.20 h, respectively. The respective values in feces were 0.02 and 0.01 μg·h^-1 reached at 33.40 h. The amount of FF and FFA recovered in feces was 0.52 and 0.22 μg, respectively. In conclusion, FF (FFA) is rapidly absorbed and slowly eliminated after a single oral administration to donkeys. Compared to FF, FFA was more slowly eliminated. FF (FFA) is mostly excreted through urine.

Keywords: antibiotic; donkey; florfenicol; florfenicol amine; pharmacokinetics; urinary excretion.

Grants and funding

The author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. This work was supported by the Taishan Leading Industry Talents-Agricultural Science of Shandong Province (grant number LJNY202022).