Toxicology of baytril (enrofloxacin)

Abstract

The prophylactic use of drugs, chemicals and biological substances is necessary to meet the sanitation standards used to maintain high levels of health status. The aim of this article was to present the basic data of the active substance, enrofloxacin, the pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics and also the pharmacological safety of this drug.Enrofloxacin as a molecule belonging to the quinolone antimicrobial family is a wide spectrum antibiotic that inhibits DNA gyrase activity in bacterial cells with bactericidal effect. It is at the center of growing attention because of its potential efficacy for the treatment of diseases. This drug is a fluorinated quinolone carboxylic acid derivative, traded as baytril, which has been widely used in veterinary medicine because of its broad spectrum activity. Enrofloxacin has extensively been tested for its safety and it was proven that this medication is rarely toxic in both intravenous and oral routes.Significant side effects occurred only in laboratory animals having a 10 times higherthan the recommended dose. The active substance is not teratogenic or mutagenic and in most scientific findings, there is no evidence of a potential risk to applicators andconsumers. As a conclusion it can be used in different administration routes in farm animals against a wide range of microorganism but it is important to say that enrofloxacin has not been shown to be safe for use in poultry as Campylobacterinfections resistant to fluoroquinolones has increased significantly since the use of enrofloxacin in poultry was approved. Key words: Enrofloxacin, spectrum, safety, teratogenic, mutagenic.