The pharmacokinetics of florfenicol (FF) was studied in plasma after a single dose (40 mg/kg) of intramuscular (i.m.) or oral gavage (p.o.) administration to crucian carp (Carassius auratus cuvieri) in freshwater at 25 °C. Ten fish per sampling point were examined after treatment. The data were fitted to two-compartment open models follow both routes of administration. The estimates of total body clearance (CL(b) ), volume of distribution (V(d) /F), and absorption half-life (T(1/2(ka)) ) were 0.067 L/h/kg and 0.145 L/h/kg, 2.21 L/kg and 1.04 L/kg, 2.75 and 1.54/h following i.m. and p.o. administration, respectively. After i.m. injection, the elimination half-life (T(1/2(β)) ) was calculated to be 38.2h, the maximum plasma concentration (C(max) ) to be 16.82 μg/mL, the time to peak plasma FF concentration (T(max) ) to be 1.50 h, and the area under the plasma concentration-time curve (AUC) to be 597.4 μg/mL·h. Following p.o. administration, the corresponding estimates were 2.17 h, 29.32 μg/mL, 1.61 h, and 276.1 μg/mL·h.

An anti-lipopolysaccharide (LPS) preparation for the intravenous treatment of septic endotoxic shock was prepared by purifying immunoglobulin G (IgG) from pooled serum from Danish blood donors. The sera were selected by the use of an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) to screen blood donors for high concentrations of antibodies to a mixture of LPS from 11 different Gram-negative bacteria. ELISA was also used for indirect quantification of IgG antibodies to lipid A, and to rough LPS from Escherichia coli Ra and Salmonella minnesota R60 (Ra). The concentration of human antibodies to the LPS mixture correlated with the concentration of antibodies to the E. coli and S. minnesota rough LPS and to lipid A. The specificity of sera with high concentrations of anti-LPS IgG was investigated by immunoblotting. Sera from individual donors reacted with LPS from different bacteria and recognized different sites on the LPS molecules. The range of specificities to different LPS was increased by the pooling of selected sera. The IgG fraction from the high titre donor pool neutralized biological activities of LPS such as activation of the Limulus amoebocyte lysate reaction and induction of tumour necrosis factor secretion from human monocytes.