Efficacy of Orally Administered Florfenicol in the Treatment of Furunculosis in Atlantic Salmon

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Abstract
This study was performed to determine the efficacy of orally administered florfenicol to treat experimentally induced furunculosis in Atlantic salmon Salmo salar held in seawater. A strain of the causative bacterium, Aeromonas salmonicida subsp. salmonicida, sensitive to florfenicol was used. In two trials, cohabitation challenges were performed by introducing six (trial 1) or eight (trial 2) fish—challenged in advance by an intraperitoneal injection of 2.2 × 104 colony-forming units—to eight aquaria, each containing 40 healthy fish. The treatment groups in both trials consisted of three groups receiving medication at 10, 13, and 16 d, respectively, postchallenge and one control group. An unchallenged, unmedicated group was used to determine the natural mortality in the population. The recommended therapeutic dose of 10 mg florfenicol/kg fish daily for 10 d was used. A higher mortality rate was observed in both trials for challenged unmedicated control fish than for unchallenged fish. In both tri...