A pharmacokinetic study is described in which Friesian calves (n = 30) were treated orally with clenbuterol at 10 times the therapeutic dose. The study was designed to establish the distribution and elimination of clenbuterol from edible tissues, the major compartments of the eye and body fluids. Animals (n = 24) were dosed (10 micrograms/kg body weight) twice daily with clenbuterol for 21 days and slaughtered in groups of five (one untreated control animal per group) at 6 h and 1, 2, 4, 8 and 16 days after cessation of treatment. At slaughter, samples of diaphragm muscle, liver, kidney, bile, urine and both eyes were obtained. One of the eyes was separated into constituent tissues: aqueous humour, vitreous humour, cornea, lens, retina (without pigmented epithelium), choroid (with pigmented retinal epithelium; choroid/PRE) and sclera. All samples were stored at -20 degrees C. Clenbuterol concentrations were higher in liver than kidney, bile and urine from day 2 of withdrawal onwards. Concentrations in choroid/PRE were at least 10 times higher than in liver at all periods following cessation of treatment and 52 times higher 16 days after treatment. The concentrations of clenbuterol in the constituent tissues of the eye were in the order choroid/PRE > cornea > > retina > aqueous humour/vitreous humour > or = lens. Concentrations of clenbuterol in choroid/PRE taken from eyes frozen whole were generally lower than those in choroid/PRE separated before storage. Choroid/PRE stored by either method contained clenbuterol at more than 100 ng/g 16 days following cessation of treatment.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)