Effect of prophylactic vitamin C administration on the efficiency of florfenicol or sulfadiazine-trimethoprim antimicrobial therapy in chickens with staphylococcal arthritis

Septic arthritis (SA) in chickens shows improper response to antibacterial therapy. This study evaluates the effect of prophylactic vitamin C administration on the efficiency of sulfadiazine-trimethoprim (SDT) or florfenicol (FF) in broilers with experimental SA. Broilers (210) were randomly allocated into 7 equal groups: (I) negative control (NC) (normal birds); (II) positive control (PC) arthritic birds by injection of Staphylococcus aureus in tibiotarsal joint at the age of 35 days; (III) vehicle control (injected with sterile medium); (IV) arthritic FF-treated (20 mg/kg/day); (V) arthritic vitamin C + FF-treated (as above + vitamin C at 15 g/100L of D.W. from day 25 of age); (VI) arthritic SDT-treated (35 mg/kg/day); (VII) arthritic vitamin C + SDT-treated. Antibacterial therapy started at day 39 of age and lasted for 5 days. Samplings were performed at the age of 44 and 54 days. A long lasting SA with severe fibrinoheterophilic synovitis and reduced body weights developed in PC broilers as compared to NC group ( p