Effect of antimicrobial treatment on the course of an experimental Yersinia pseudotuberculosis infection in canaries.

The efficacy of five antimicrobials administered via the drinking water was compared for the treatment of experimental Yersinia pseudotuberculosis infection in canaries. Groups of eight to 10 canaries were treated with ampicillin (2 g/1), doxycycline (500 mg/1), enrofloxacin (150 mg/1), chloramphenicol (1 g/1) or sulphamerazine-trimethoprim (1 g/1-200 mg/1) for 10 days, commencing 2 days after experimental infection. No clinical signs were observed in the group treated with enrofloxacin and there were no deaths and no isolations of Y. pseudotuberculosis from the spleen and liver at necropsy carried out at 35 days post-inoculation. In the groups treated with the other antibiotics morbidity varied between 50 and 100%, and mortality between 30 and 44%. Mortality and morbidity in an untreated infected control group of 12 canaries were 100%. Results indicate that enrofloxacin offers good possibilities for the treatment of pseudotuberculosis in recently infected canaries.