Bioavailability of spiramycin and lincomycin after oral administration to fed and fasted pigs

The disposition of spiramycin and lincomycin was measured after intravenous (i.v.) and oral (p.o.) administration to pigs. Twelve healthy pigs (six for each compound) weighing 16-43 kg received a dose of 10 mg/kg intravenously, and 55 mg/kg (spiramycin) or 33 mg/kg (lincomycin) orally in both a fasted and a fed condition in a three-way cross-over design. Spiramycin was detectable in plasma up to 30 h after intravenous and oral administration to both fasted and fed pigs, whereas lincomycin was detected for only 12 h after intravenous administration and up to 15 h after oral administration. The volume of distribution was 5.6 +/- 1.5 and 1.1 +/- 0.2 L/kg body weight for spiramycin and lincomycin, respectively. For both compounds the bioavailability was strongly dependent on the presence of food in the gastrointestinal tract. For spiramycin the bioavailability was determined to be 60% and 24% in fasted and fed pigs, respectively, whereas the corresponding figures for lincomycin were 73% and 41%. The maximum plasma concentration of spiramycin (Cmax) was estimated to be 5 microg/mL in fasted pigs and 1 microg/mL only in fed pigs. It is concluded that an oral dose of 55 mg/kg body weight is not enough to give a therapeutically effective plasma concentration of spiramycin against species of Mycoplasma, Streptococcus, Staphylococcus and Pasteurella multocida. The maximum plasma concentration of lincomycin was estimated to be 8 microg/mL in fasted pigs and 5 microg/mL in fed pigs, but as the minimum inhibitory concentration for lincomycin against Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae and P. multocida is higher than 32 microg/mL a therapeutically effective plasma concentration could not be obtained following oral administration of the drug. For Mycoplasma the MIC90 is below 1 microg/mL and a therapeutically effective plasma concentration of lincomycin was thus obtained after oral administration to both fed and fasted pigs.