THE INTELLECTUAL LINEAGE OF SULFAQUINOXALINE AS A COCCIDIOSTAT.
June 27th, 2008 | by admin |THE INTELLECTUAL LINEAGE OF SULFAQUINOXALINE AS A COCCIDIOSTAT.
ABSTRACT. Sulfaquinoxaline played an important part in the demotion of roast chicken from vaunted Sunday-dinner status to an unrespected position on the everyday menu of the Western world. It had its origins in the chemical synthetic program that sprang from the breakthrough introduction of sulfa drugs into human medicine in the 1930s. The program was sustained through the years of World War II despite the clinical decline of that chemical class. The drugs were somewhat effective in experimental malaria infections, and a sulfa drug that had a long plasma half-life would ipso facto be considered promising as an antimalarial drug. Sulfaquinoxaline was such a compound. Synthesized during the War, it proved too toxic to be used in humans against the sporozoan parasite (Plasmodium spp.) that causes malaria. Almost immediately, however, it was found to be a superior agent against another sporozoan parasite, Eimeria spp., the causative agent of coccidiosis in domestic chickens; and in 1948 it was introduced commercially as a poultry coccidiostat. Sulfaquinoxaline was not the first sulfa drug found active against Eimeria in poultry, but its practical success in disease control firmly established the routine incorporation of anticoccidial drugs in poultry feed. In this way it exerted a major impact on the worldwide production of poultry meat. While long eclipsed by other drugs in poultry management, it continues to be used in other host species. This paper describes the discovery of sulfaquinoxaline as a practical therapeutic agent, and examines the way in which the discovery arose from a partnership between industry and academia. KEYWORDS: history of pharmacology, coccidiosis, history of parasitlology, sulfa drugs, Merck Company, University of Rhode Island, John Delaplane, David Green, Max Tishler, John Weijlard.
Campbell W.