Tropical Journal of Pharmaceutical Research

Original Research Article | OPEN ACCESS

Comparative in-vitro studies on the efficacy of ivermectin against gastrointestinal sheep nematode

Isaiah O. Ademola¹ , Benjamin O. Fagbemi¹, Olakunle S. Idowu²

¹Department of Veterinary Microbiology and Parasitology,; ²Department of Pharmaceutical Chemistry, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.

For correspondence:- Isaiah Ademola Email: adejanet@yahoo.com Tel:+234-2-8107551

Published: 17 December 2003

Citation: Ademola IO, Fagbemi BO, Idowu OS. Comparative in-vitro studies on the efficacy of ivermectin against gastrointestinal sheep nematode. Trop J Pharm Res 2003; 2(2):235-238 doi: 10.4314/tjpr.v2i2.7

© 2003 The authors.
This is an Open Access article that uses a funding model which does not charge readers or their institutions for access and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0) and the Budapest Open Access Initiative (http://www.budapestopenaccessinitiative.org/read), which permit unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited..

Abstract

Purpose: This study was designed to evaluate the relative efficacy of various brands of ivermectin injection available for use in clinical veterinary practice in Nigeria.
Method: Ivermectin injections were evaluated by a larval development assay (LDVA), using the larvae of Strongyles (predominantly Haemonchus contortus) of sheep. The effect of standard solutions of the drug from the various brands on the transformation of L 1 to L 3 and survival of L 3 larvae was used to assess bioactivity. The 50% lethal concentration (LC50) was determined from regression line obtained by probit transformation of the biological data. The LC50 values for each of the brands were compared with that of the innovator brand (Ivomec Super ) for any significant difference.
Results: The LC50 values obtained for the five brands varied widely. It ranges from 1.1±0.17 ng/ml for the innovator brand to 2.3±0.3, 3.0±0.3, 8.0±0.2 and 17.0±0.3 ng/ml for the other four brands. The biological assays performed on each of the five brands were of comparable precision. LC50 for Ivomec super was significantly different from those of the other four brands (Student’ s t test, p < 0.01).
Conclusion: The bioactivities of brands of ivermectin injections available in Nigeria are significantly different. This is a probable reason for the varied treatment response to various brands of ivermectin injection in veterinary practice in Nigeria. This justifies the need for drug regulatory bodies in Nigeria to ensure that ivermectin injections registered for use in Nigeria meets approved standards before the drugs are allowed to be imported into the country.

Keywords: Bioactivity, ivermectin, sheep nematode