A new sustained release formulation of the antibiotic ceftiofur, approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for use in horses with pneumonia, makes treating affected foals easier."The bacterium Streptococcus equi subsp. zooepidemicus is a common cause of pneumonia in horses," said Scott McClure, DVM, PhD, Dipl. AVCS, an assistant professor at Iowa State University. "The antibiotic ceftiofur, initially introduced in 1994, remains effective against S. equi subsp. zooepidemicus." McClure presented on a ceftiofur study at the 2010 American Association of Equine Practitioners Convention, held Dec. 4-8 in Baltimore, Md.

Currently, ceftiofur is licensed for use in horses, but is labeled for administration every 24 hours.

"As part of the FDA approval procedure, we tested a sustained release formulation of ceftiofur that only needs to be administered by a veterinarian two times to horses with S. equi subsp. zooepidemicus pneumonia," explained McClure. "This is an easy-to-use product that will … improve client compliance."

McClure and colleagues administered the sustained release formulation intramuscularly two times, four days apart