Randomized masked controlled clinical trial to compare 7-day and 14-day course length of doxycycline in the treatment of Mycoplasma felis infection in shelter cats.

The aim of this study was to compare the clinical and microbial efficacy of a 7-day or a 14-day course of doxycycline for the treatment of Mycoplasma felis-infected cats with clinical signs of upper respiratory tract disease (URTD) assessed using clinical scoring criteria. Cats were randomly allocated to either the Doxy-7 group (N=20; 7-day course of oral doxycyline liquid followed by 7-days placebo); or the Doxy-14 group (N=20; 14-day course of oral doxycycline). There were no significant differences in Mycoplasma load between groups at Day 1 or Day 7 (P>0.05), but at Day 14 mean Mycoplasma load was lower in the Doxy-14 group (P=0.01). Mycoplasma load reduced over Days 1-7 in each group (P<0.01), but only the Doxy-14 group had a significantly reduced Mycoplasma load at Day 14 compared to Day 1 (P<0.01). On Day 14, 11 (55%) cats in the Doxy-7 group and 5 (25%) cats in the Doxy-14 group had positive PCR results for M. felis. There was a statistically significant reduction within each group across the Day 1-7 period for ocular discharge, nasal discharge, demeanor, and food intake scores (P<0.01 for each score category). Nasal discharge scores and sneezing scores were statistically lower in the Doxy-14 group than in the Doxy-7 group on individual days during the Day 8-14 period (P<0.05). We conclude that in M. felis-infected cats with clinical signs of URTD, a 14-day course of oral doxycycline produced superior microbial but not clinical results compared to a 7-day course of treatment.

Environmental occurrence, fate and transformation of benzodiazepines in water treatment.

Benzodiazepine derivatives are prescribed in large quantities globally and are potentially new emerging environmental contaminants. Unfortunately, a dearth of data exists concerning occurrence, persistence and fate in the environment. This paper redresses this by reviewing existing literature, assessing the occurrence of selected benzodiazepine anxiolytics (diazepam, oxazepam and bromazepam) in wastewater influent and effluent and surface water from Slovenia, evaluating their removal during water treatment and identifying the transformation products formed during water treatment. Their occurrence was monitored in hospital effluent, river water and in wastewater treatment plant influent and effluent. The study reveals the presence of benzodiazepine derivatives in all samples with the highest amounts in hospital effluents: 111 ng L(-1), 158 ng L(-1) and 72 ng L(-1) for diazepam, bromazepam and oxazepam, respectively. Removal efficiencies with respect to biological treatment of diazepam were 16-18% (oxic), 18-32% (anoxic→oxic), 53-76% (oxic→anoxic) and 83% (oxic→anoxic→oxic→anoxic cascade bioreactors), while the removal oxazepam was 20-24% under anoxic conditions. Coupled biological and photochemical treatment followed by the adsorption to activated carbon resulted in a removal efficiency of 99.99%. Results reveal the recalcitrant nature of benzodiazepine derivatives and suggest that only combinational treatment is sufficient to remove them. In addition, eight novel diazepam and four novel oxazepam transformation products are reported.