Clinical case

Fourteen healthy pigs of both sex weighing 82 kg in average were housed in individual pens and randomly allocated to 2 groups receiving one of the 2 formulations tested (group A : Maxflor^®L.A, Virbac and group B :
Colmax^®, Aranda). The pigs had not received any injection in the neck during the month preceding inclusion. Both products were administered according to registered posology (2 intramuscular injections 48 h apart at the florfenicol dose of 15 mg/kg, i.e. 1 ml/26.7 kg). Injections were done 3 inches behind the ear (in left side for the first injection and in right side for the second one) with single use syringes and needles (16Gx1”). All injection sites were scored for swelling, pain, pruritus and size of inflammation zone on 1, 3, 7 and 14 days after administration by clinical examination and thermography.

Pigs were slaughtered when withdrawal time of products had elapsed (14 days after second injection). Macroscopic examination of all injection sites was done according to a grading scale. Samples of all injection sites were taken for histopathology after fixation by formalin, embedding into paraffin then Haematoxyllin and Eosin staining of 3-5 μm
thin sections. Blinded observations were made for clinical and post mortem phases. The rates of lesions were compared between groups according to Fisher’s exact test.