The influence of Ostertagia circumcincta and Trichostrongylus colubriformis infections on the pharmacokinetics of febantel in lambs

Plasma concentrations of febantel and its major metabolites fenbendazole, oxfendazole and oxfendazole sulphone were determined after oral administration of 7.5 mg/kg febantel in lambs before and 28 days after infection with 50,000 L3 larvae of Ostertagia circumcincta or Trichostrongylus colubriformis. The febantel concentrations were always very low and only in a few samples higher than the detection limit. The mean decrease in AUC for the three metabolites for the infected sheep in comparison to the parasite naïve sheep was 13.9% +/- 4.1% (mean +/- SEM) and 23.7% +/- 5.3% in the O. circumcincta infected and the T. colubriformis infected lambs respectively. This reduction was only significant for the T. colubriformis infected group. In order to determine a more complete pharmacokinetic profile, febantel was injected intravenously at a dose of 2.5 mg/kg in a further study.