Comparative analysis of the effect of antimicrobial drugs from the groups of sulfonamides and nitrofurans on the blood leukogram of chickens

The effect of sulfaguanidine, furazidine, nifurantel and sulfasalazine on the leukogram of chicken blood was studied. Five groups were formed for the study, consisting of day-old Hyssex Brown chickens. The control group received regular drinking water for 10 days, while chickens of groups II, III, IV and V received water with sulfaguanidine, furazidine, nifurantel and sulfasalazine at a dosage of 200 mg/l, respectively. Blood sampling by intracardiac puncture was performed on the first, third, fifth, seventh and ninth days after drug withdrawal. Eosinophils, basophils, pseudoeosinophils, lymphocytes, and monocytes were counted in Romanovsky-Giems stained blood smears. The leukocyte formula was found relative to the total number of leukocytes by the percentage of individual cell forms. The dynamics of the leukocyte intoxication index, the leukocyte displacement index, the lymphocytegranulocyte index, the Krebs index, the leukocyte index and the immunoreactivity index were studied by calculation. The statistical significance of the differences was assessed using the nonparametric MannWhitney U-test. Feeding chickens with nitrofurans (furazidine and nifurantel) and sulifanilamides (sulfaguanidine and sulfasalazine) leads to a change in leukogram values compared with similar indicators in the blood of chickens of the intact control group. The leukocyte indices of the blood of chickens treated with antimicrobial drugs from the groups of nitrofurans and sulfonamides remain without statistically significant changes. Furazidine causes a marked increase in the number of pseudoeosinophils during the first seven days after discontinuation of the drug, then this indicator returns to the control values. Nifurantel has virtually no effect on the physiological status of chicken blood, causing statistically insignificant deviations in the number of eosinophils and lymphocytes. Sulfaguanidine and sulfasalazine do not cause significant changes in the leukocyte formula of chicken blood.