The diversity of species in which drugs are used for clinical purposes and the emphasis on various classes of drugs make veterinary pharmacology a complex subject. Anatomical and physiological features influence the pharmacokinetic behaviour of a drug in a particular animal and the dosage required. This book is concerned with the basis of species differences, the selection of pharmacokinetic parameters and the interpretation of values obtained. There are chapters on bioavailability and its application to veterinary dosage forms, changes in drug disposition and interspecies scaling, clinical selectivity and stereoisomerism, drug permeation, antimicrobial disposition and specifics related to neonatal animals. The author has gathered all this information together in one place so allowing the reader to make better selection of drug preparations for animal dosages to effectively treat animal diseases.

The book will prove valuable to clinical researchers in the areas of pharmacology, anaesthesia, microbial infections and, internal medicine as well as postgraduate students of these disciplines.

The Author

J Desmond Baggot (MVM, PhD, DSc, FRCVS, DipECVPT) is currently Visiting Professor of Veterinary Pharmacology at the School of Veterinary Medicine, St George's University, Grenada, West Indies. He was a contributing author and co-author of Antimicrobial Therapy in Veterinary Medicine, 3rd Edition (2000) and Development and Formulation of Veterinary Dosage Forms, 2nd Edition (1998) and the author of Principles of Drug Disposition in Domestic Animals (1977). Elucidations of the processes that underline species variation in the disposition of drugs and interpretation of the influence of disease states on drug disposition have been the focus of his research endeavours. He was a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Veterinary Pharmacology and Therapeutics from 1978 to 1996. He is a former Professor of Clinical Pharmacology at the School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California, Davis and Preclinical Veterinary Studies at the University of Zimbabwe, Harare.