The effect of different doses of levofloxacin on leukocyte dynamics in chicken blood

Abstract

The article deals with research into the effect of different doses of levofloxacin (fluoroquinolone class drug) on chicken blood parameters. Male Hisex Brown chickens were divided into 3 groups, one of them was control, the other two were experimental, the latter received the drug at concentrations 600 mg/L and 200 mg/L. The fluoroquinolone was administered via drinking water 5 consecutive days. We evaluated the following hematological parameters of chickens: leukocyte count (direct count in Goryaev's chamber) and leukogram (count in stained blood smears). The results of our research state that the administration of levofloxacin at concentration 600 mg/L causes transitory leukocytosis, lymphopenia and pseudoeosinophilia, but that does not imply a heavy toxic effect on chicken organism as by the end of the research the parameters were already within the normal range. The administration of levofloxacin at concentration 200 mg/L similarly caused a brief increase in pseudoeosinophil number and a decrease in lymphocyte number in chicken blood but they were not generally marked which would prove the negative effect of levofloxacin.