Metabolism and depletion of albendazole in the muscle tissue of channel catfish following oral treatment

Abstract

The residue depletion of albendazole (ABZ) and its metabolites was studied in channel catfish muscle tissue. Channel catfish were dosed once with 10 mg/kg ABZ via stomach tube with manual restraint. Muscle tissue samples were collected at 8, 16, 24, 48, 72, 96 and 120 h postdose. A high-performance liquid chromatographic method was used to assay ABZ and its major metabolites: ABZ sulfoxide (ABZ-SO), ABZ sulfone (ABZ-SO2) and ABZ aminosulfone (ABZ-2-NH2SO2) in the muscle tissue. The results indicate that ABZ and ABZ-SO were present in low concentrations, i.e. <15 and <10 μg/kg, respectively, at 8 h postdose in catfish muscle with and without skin. ABZ-SO2 was present at 1 μg/kg concentration levels until 48 h in muscle alone and 72 h in muscle with skin. ABZ-2-NH2SO2 was not detected at any withdrawal periods.