Therapeutic effect of Chinese patent medicine “Wuhuanghu” on porcine infectious pleuropneumonia and its acute and subchronic toxicity as well as evaluation of safety pharmacology

• “Wuhuanghu” can significantly inhibit Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae in a dose-dependent manner.
• The LD50 value of “Wuhuanghu” was more than 5000 mg/kg.
• The target organ of “Wuhuanghu” was liver.
• “Wuhuanghu” is considered as a safe veterinary medicine for oral administration.

Chinese patent medicines play an important role in veterinary clinical use. The aim of this study is to research the anti-infection effect of Chinese patent medicine “Wuhuanghu” for the treatment of porcine infectious pleuropneumonia and to evaluate the safety of “Wuhuanghu” in order to provide a comprehensive understanding of its toxicity. The anti-infection results showed that the treatment with “Wuhuanghu” could significantly inhibit pneumonia and decrement of the pneumonia in high, medium and low doses of “Wuhuanghu” groups were 70.97%, 61.29% and 58.06% respectively. The acute toxicity test showed that rats in the highest group (5000 mg/kg) had no death and no abnormal response, suggesting the LD50 of “Wuhuanghu” was more than 5000 mg/kg. The subchronic toxicity study showed that hematology indexes in all groups had no obvious differences; blood biochemical index, only albumin and total cholesterol in middle and low doses of “Wuhuanghu” groups were significantly decreased when compared with control group. The clinical pathology showed that the target organ of “Wuhuanghu” was liver. The safety pharmacology study indicated that “Wuhuanghu” had no side effects on rats. In conclusion, “Wuhuanghu” has therapeutic and protective effects to porcine infectious pleuropneumonia in a dose-dependent manner and “Wuhuanghu” is a safe veterinary medicine.