Introduction: a welcome to the First Special Animal Health Issue of AAPS PharmSci.
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The goal of this special volume is to provide veterinary scientists with state-of-the art reviews in animal health and to inform human health scientists of the various challenges and collaborative opportunities associated with their animal health counterparts. The contributors are highly respected experts, providing invaluable insights into current issues and state-of-the-art advances within veterinary medicine. (+info)
A computer program for calculation of doses and prices of injectable medications based on body weight or body surface area.
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A computer program (CalcAnesth) was developed with Visual Basic for the purpose of calculating the doses and prices of injectable medications on the basis of body weight or body surface area. The drug names, concentrations, and prices are loaded from a drug database. This database is a simple text file, that the user can easily create or modify. The animal names and body weights can be loaded from a similar database. After typing the dose and the units into the user interface, the results will be automatically displayed. The program is able to open and save anesthetic protocols, and export or print the results. This CalcAnesth program can be useful in clinical veterinary anesthesiology and research. The rationale for dosing on the basis of body surface area is also discussed in this article. (+info)
Availability and estimates of veterinary antimicrobial use in British Columbia.
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The amount of antimicrobial use is a significant selection pressure that alters the frequency of antimicrobial resistance. This paper summarizes attempts to estimate the weight of antimicrobial purchases in British Columbia for use in animals. The data reported here do not capture all sources of veterinary antimicrobial use in British Columbia. This paper highlights how information deficits on veterinary drug use complicate the development of an evidence-based policy framework for combating antimicrobial resistance. (+info)
Your client credibility: are your pharmacy practices helping or hindering?
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When recommending a specific pharmaceutical, more has to be taken into account than whether the API is indicated for the illness in question. Based on the preceding discussion, product source can have a tremendous impact on efficacy, on therapeutic success, and on practitioners' credibility in the eyes of their clients. However, product source goes beyond simple credibility, encompassing professional ethics and liability. In answering the Ethical question of the month--December 2001 "Should private veterinary practitioners be allowed to produce autogenous vaccines or compound antimicrobial products for use in food producing animals?" Rollin concluded, "one cannot envision a clearer case of unethical behavior." The reality is that quality assurance, efficacy, potency, and safety are not defined for compounded products, and should veterinarians choose to script or dispense one, the responsibility for its quality, efficacy, potency, and safety falls squarely on their shoulders. Ultimately, this also translates into 100% liability should an ADR, illness, or lack of effect, befall the patient. While having access to ELDU and compounded products is crucial in facilitating the treatment of the various diseases that veterinarians face, the regulatory freedom that gives them this choice carries heightened responsibilities when electing this option. In a nutshell, ethical and responsible principles of pharmacy dictate that a veterinarian's first choice should be a veterinary-licensed pharmaceutical for the indication in question. Should this not exist, ELDU of a licensed product with clinically derived therapeutic protocols should be the next choice. Compounded pharmaceuticals should only be used when no licensed (those sporting a DIN) product exists, and extreme cautions should be exercised when using transdermal formulations. Liability dictates that this decision be undertaken with informed consent of the owner and with appropriate due diligence when selecting a compounding service provider. Various articles have been written that provide the veterinarian with guidance when making this decision. (+info)
Prescribing antimicrobial agents for dogs and cats via university pharmacies in Finland--patterns and quality of information.
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The aim of our study was to evaluate antimicrobial use in dogs and cats in Finland. Information on veterinary prescriptions was gathered from University Pharmacies (n=17) over a one-month period, April 2001. A total of 2719 prescriptions for veterinary use were delivered, of which the majority were for dogs (70%, n=1898) and cats (14%, n=384). The most prescribed therapy group was per-oral antimicrobial agents (53%, n=1449), of which 16% (n=237) were medicines approved for humans. The most commonly used substances for dogs and cats were betalactams, 66% and 78%, respectively. The proportion of fluoroquinolones was 3-5%. The average duration of the treatment periods was 10 days with the exception of treatment of cats with macrolide-lincosamides, where the mean period was 20 days. Indication was mentioned only in 37% of the prescriptions. (+info)
The routine use of antibiotics to promote animal growth does little to benefit protein undernutrition in the developing world.
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Some persons argue that the routine addition of antibiotics to animal feed will help alleviate protein undernutrition in developing countries by increasing meat production. In contrast, we estimate that, if all routine antibiotic use in animal feed were ceased, there would be negligible effects in these countries. Poultry and pork production are unlikely to decrease by more than 2%. Average daily protein supply would decrease by no more than 0.1 g per person (or 0.2% of total protein intake). Eliminating the routine use of in-feed antibiotics will improve human and animal health, by reducing the development and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria. (+info)
Determination of acepromazine, ketamine, medetomidine, and xylazine in serum: multi-residue screening by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry.
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A large variety of drugs are administered to large and small animals by veterinary clinicians for sedation, anesthesia, muscle relaxation, and analgesia. The present paper reports a simple and rapid multi-residue detection and quantitation method for four chemically different drugs: medetomidine, xylazine, ketamine, and acepromazine. Chromatographic separation was carried out on a liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry instrument with a C18-reversed-phase column. Fragmentation patterns were determined with atmospheric pressure chemical ionization mass spectrometry set to operate in a positive selective ion monitoring mode. The method was determined to be linear over the range of concentrations tested (2.0-100.0 ng/mL). Accuracy, precision, and specificity were evaluated and the method was determined to be applicable to detection of medetomidine, xylazine, ketamine, and acepromazine in serum samples of multiple animal species (canine, equine, and bovine). Matrix limits of quantitation were determined to be 5.0 ng/mL for all four analytes, and recoveries ranged between 82.0 and 118%, with a 3.0-18.3% relative standard deviation. (+info)
Postexposure management and treatment of anthrax in dogs--executive councils of the American Academy of Veterinary Pharmacology and Therapeutics and the American College of Veterinary Clinical Pharmacology.
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Dogs are generally at low risk of developing disease following exposure to anthrax. When disease does occur, it appears associated with oral exposure to the bacteria leading to massive swelling of the head, neck, and mediastinal regions. Death is due to toxemia and shock. For animals at high risk, such as search and rescue dogs with a known exposure, doxycycline at 5 mg/kg orally once daily for 45 to 60 days is suggested as a prophylactic treatment. Additional information on the diagnosis, prevention, and treatment of the disease in dogs is presented. (+info)