Judicious and non-judicious use of cephalexin antibiotic in indoor poultry experimentation and detection of cephalexin residues in edible poultry tissues

Antibiotics are the most widely injudiciously used drugs for therapeutic purposes throughout the world. This study aimed to detect cephalexin residue after discriminate and indiscriminate administration of cephalexin antibiotic in broiler. Eighteen broiler chicks, DOC (Cobb-500) were collected & reared for up to 31 days. The chicks were randomly divided into three groups namely control group (Group-A), discriminate cephalexin group (Group-B) and indiscriminate cephalexin group (Group-C). Each group consists of 6 birds. In this investigation, only a detectable level of antibiotic residues was found in indiscriminate group of poultry. A total of 72 samples were investigated by the TLC method. The overall residue of cephalexin found in indiscriminate group as in liver (100%), kidney (83.33%), thigh muscle (25.00%), breast muscle (8.33%), fat and spleen (66.67%) respectively. The final average body weight were recorded highest in indiscriminate antibiotic group (1804.17 ± 73.92gm) followed by discriminate group (1741.33 ± 63.63gm) and control group (1453.33 ± 26.39gm). The body weight was found significantly (p<0.05) higher in the antibiotic treated groups. The hematological parameters such as Hb, PCV and TEC values of treatment groups showed significantly (p<0.05) lower, while PCV did not show any significant difference compared to the control group. Overall, the present study documented the widespread abuse of cephalexin and failure to implement the recommended withdrawal period will undeniably lead to deposition of residues in broiler tissues.