Radiological study of goat kids sup-plemented with enrofloxacin

Abstract

Antibiotics in veterinary medicine are used not only for the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases, but also as growth promoters. In this context, enrofloxacin is an antibiotic widely used in veterinary medicine. On the other hand, information on the use of this drug in small ruminants is scarce. The purpose of this work was to perform a radiological study of goat kids submitted to a daily supplementation with enrofloxacin. The animals were fed with reconstituted cow's milk powder with the addition of the antibiotic (5 mg/kg/day). At 70 days of age, a radiological study was performed, using a control animal for com-parisons. This study showed a marked increase in cortical and bone density of the tho-racic joints of the animals that received the drug. It was found that the use of this scheme of administration caused joint alterations in the species. However, further inves-tigations are required in order to find an adequate administration protocol that does not generate biomechanical alterations in growing animals.