Plasma ronidazole concentrations in sheep after intravenous, oral, intraruminal and intraabomasal administration

Plasma ronidazole concentrations were examined after intravenous (i.v.) and oral administration of ronidazole in sheep (n = 6) at a dosage of 5 mg/kg body weight. In three sheep a ruminal and an abomasal fistula were inserted. The ronidazole determinations were performed by an HPLC method. Oral bioavailability in the fistulated sheep was only 5.5 +/- 1.8% (mean +/- SE). Somewhat lower values (4.6 +/- 1.4%) were obtained when the drug was administered through the ruminal fistula in the rumen. After administration of the same dose directly in the abomasum through the intraabomasal fistula, bioavailability was increased to 86.0 +/- 8.9%. In the non-fistulated sheep, oral biodisponibility was 2.6 +/- 0.5%. After water was restricted for 48 h before the oral ronidazole administration to these sheep, bioavailability was slightly increased (6.0 +/- 3.1%). When desmopressin acetate was injected i.v. before the oral ronidazole administration, bioavailability was 10.6 +/- 6.5%. When glypressin, another vasopressin analogue, was used, oral bioavailability was not influenced: 2.4 +/- 1.3%. Ronidazole was also incubated with ruminal contents and the ronidazole concentration decreased with a first order rate constant of 0.122 +/- 0.050 min-1 (mean +/- SE). These results suggest that oral administration of ronidazole to sheep is of little therapeutic use, because most is metabolised by the ruminal micro-organisms before it can reach the circulation. A second conclusion we can make is that it is very difficult, if not impossible, at least with the methods used, to influence gastro-intestinal motility in sheep to get a reproducible closure of the oesophageal groove.