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Effect of prophylactic vitamin C administration on the efficiency of florfenicol or sulfadiazine-trimethoprim antimicrobial therapy in chickens with staphylococcal arthritis

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Abstract

Septic arthritis (SA) in chickens shows improper response to antibacterial therapy. This study evaluates the effect of prophylactic vitamin C administration on the efficiency of sulfadiazine-trimethoprim (SDT) or florfenicol (FF) in broilers with experimental SA. Broilers (210) were randomly allocated into 7 equal groups: (I) negative control (NC) (normal birds); (II) positive control (PC) arthritic birds by injection of Staphylococcus aureus in tibiotarsal joint at the age of 35 days; (III) vehicle control (injected with sterile medium); (IV) arthritic FF-treated (20 mg/kg/day); (V) arthritic vitamin C + FF-treated (as above + vitamin C at 15 g/100L of D.W. from day 25 of age); (VI) arthritic SDT-treated (35 mg/kg/day); (VII) arthritic vitamin C + SDT-treated. Antibacterial therapy started at day 39 of age and lasted for 5 days. Samplings were performed at the age of 44 and 54 days. A long lasting SA with severe fibrinoheterophilic synovitis and reduced body weights developed in PC broilers as compared to NC group (p < 0.05). Oxidative stress was present at sampling 1. Arthritis was not reflected in IL-6 levels of synovial fluid of PC group. None of the antibacterials resulted in completely successful treatment. Vitamin C did not appreciably improve lameness and arthritis scores, although it decreased lipid peroxidation and improved weights of FF treated-arthritic birds. For SDT-treated birds, vitamin C only ameliorated histopathological changes. In conclusion, except for improving body weight in FF-treated birds, prophylactic administration of vitamin C is not associated with improvements in clinical outcome of antimicrobial therapy of broilers with SA, although it ameliorates oxidative stress and some histopathological changes.

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Funding

This study was funded by the School of Veterinary Medicine, Shiraz University, under grant number 94GCU2M163773.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Clinical Sciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

    Fahimeh Nematollahi & Bahman Abdi-Hachesoo

  2. Department of Basic Sciences, Division of Pharmacology and Toxicology, School of Veterinary Medicine, Shiraz University, PO Box 71441-69155, Shiraz, Iran

    Tahoora Shomali

  3. Department of Pathobiology, School of Veterinary Medicine, Shiraz University, Shiraz, Iran

    Azizollah Khodakaram-Tafti

Authors
  1. Fahimeh Nematollahi
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  2. Tahoora Shomali
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  3. Bahman Abdi-Hachesoo
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  4. Azizollah Khodakaram-Tafti
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Contributions

TS and FN conceived and designed research. FN and BAH conducted experiments. FN, BAH, and AKT provided experimental data. TS analyzed and interpreted data. TS wrote the manuscript. All authors read and approved the manuscript.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Tahoora Shomali.

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All procedures used in this study are approved by institutional ethical guidelines (Shiraz University, School of Veterinary Medicine, No. 94GCU2M163773) for care and use of animals in experiments based on guidelines of EU Directive 2010/63/EU for animal experiments.

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Nematollahi, F., Shomali, T., Abdi-Hachesoo, B. et al. Effect of prophylactic vitamin C administration on the efficiency of florfenicol or sulfadiazine-trimethoprim antimicrobial therapy in chickens with staphylococcal arthritis. Trop Anim Health Prod 54, 25 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11250-021-03033-2

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