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Efficacy of ceftiofur and flunixin in the early treatment of bronchopneumonia in weaners

¹ Department of Functional Sciences, Unit of Pharmacology, Pharmacotherapy and Toxicology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Liège, Boulevard de Colonster B-41, B-4000 Liège, Belgium
² Pharnimal, Route des Six Frères 16, B-5310 Eghezée, Belgium

Correspondence: Correspondence to Dr Gustin

Three groups of five pigs were inoculated intratracheally with Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharides, and 24 hours later with 10 x 10⁹ colony-forming units of a non-toxigenic strain of Pasteurella multocida type A; a fourth group was left uninoculated as controls. The three inoculated groups received either no treatment (positive controls), or were treated with 3 mg/kg ceftiofur intramuscularly once a day for five consecutive days, either alone or combined with 2 mg/kg flunixin intramuscularly once a day for three consecutive days. The sustained coughing and hyperthermia recorded in the positive controls disappeared after two days and three days of treatments, respectively, in the treated animals, and the reductions in daily weight gain and changes in breathing pattern observed in the controls were not observed in the treated animals. There were no significant differences between the pigs treated with ceftiofur alone or ceftiofur combined with flunixin. In the positive controls, the number of inflammatory cells in samples of bronchoalveolar lavage fluid continued to increase up to 15 days after inoculation, whereas in the treated animals there were similar increases at six days but the numbers had decreased to baseline levels after 15 days. Similarly, in the treated animals the volume of the lung lesions was significantly less than in the control animals, but the inclusion of flunixin in the treatment regimen had no significant additional effect.