Pharmacokinetics of carprofen in anaesthetized pigs

The pig is a common research model for translational medicine. From an animal welfare perspective and given the number of experimental pigs used worldwide, it is surprising that the pharmacokinetics of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug carprofen have not been published to date.

We investigated the pharmacokinetics of carprofen after single intravenous and multiple oral doses administered to pigs undergoing electroporation of pancreas. Carprofen had a rapid distribution and a slower elimination phase. The volume of distribution was small, mainly because of the negligible distribution of carprofen from plasma to other tissues.

Pigs showed no signs of pain or distress postoperatively. Because other analgesic drugs were also used as part of the anaesthetic and analgesic protocol, it was not possible to determine the effect of carprofen alone on the severity of pain.

We are proud, that the Editor of Veterinary Anaesthesia and Analgesia honoured our article to be one of the Editors’ choice articles in 2021.

Authors: Maša Bošnjak, Mojca Kržan, Urša Lampreht Tratar, Jožica Dolenc, Maja Čemažar, Alenka Seliškar

The authors acknowledge financial support from the Slovenian Research Agency (P4-0053, P4-0092, P3-0003, P3-0067). The article was published in January 2021 in Veterinary Anaesthesia and Analgesia