Efficacy and side effects of ciprofloxacin on E.coli infections in chickens

Escherichia coli (B. coli; affect poultry industry causing seriouseconomic losses achieved by high morbidity and high mortality, lossof body weight and low egg production. The control of this microbe isan important for poultry farms and depends primarily on theprophylactic use of some antimicrobial agents such as ciprofloxacin.Ciprofloxacin is one of recent fluoroquinolone antimicrobial,which also effective in treatment of B. coli infection in poultry ..The present work was conducted to evaluate the antibacterialeffect of ciprofloxacin in healthy and experimentally B. coli infectedchickens. The sensitivity of isolated B. coli strains of avian origin isinvestigated in vitro to different antimicrobial agents. The effect oftherapeutic dose of ciprofloxacin (5 mglkg b.wt in drinking water) for5 successive days on healthy and experimentally infected chickenswith B. coli was studied. Moreover, the effects of therapeutic dose ofthis drugs on haematological picture as well as, liver and kidneyfunctions and some antioxidant enzymes were studied.I. Antimicrobial activity in vitroThe present study showed that MIC of ciprofloxacin wasO.2Ilg/ml against B. coli.The degree of sensitivity was determined by measuring diameterof inhibition zone.The sensitivity of B. coli to commercial discs of antibioticsnamely ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin, neomycin, oxytetracycline,