Nitrofurazone (CPSEM)

Nitrofurazone (NFZ), as well as other nitrofuran antibiotics, was widely used for the prevention and treatment of various bacterial and protozoan infections such as gastrointestinal enteritis, fowl cholera and coccidiosis black-heads. In addition, they can function as effective growth promoters in animals to largely enhance the productivity. Since 1995, all nitrofurans have been prohibited for use in foodproducing animals due to the concerns about their potential carcinogenicity and mutagenicity. However, due to their low cost and relatively high efficiency, nitrofuran antibiotics are still widely applied across the world, which has generated a serious global food safety issue currently. Nitrofuran drugs are rapidly metabolized in vivo, so the parental drug form itself does not normally remain in meat products of the treated animals. Nevertheless, the metabolites of these drugs can bind to animal tissue proteins and persist for a considerable period of time because of the stability of the protein-bound metabolite residues.