Population pharmacokinetics of butorphanol following intramuscular administration to exercised thoroughbred horses

Butorphanol is commonly administered, both by the intravenous and intramuscular routes, to racehorses to facilitate handling for diagnostic procedures. As the administration of butorphanol for therapeutic purposes is considered appropriate, in order to avoid inadvertent positive drug tests, a thorough understanding of the pharmacokinetics of this drug is necessary. In the current study, 12, exercised Thoroughbred horses were administered a single intramuscular dose of 0.1 mg/kg butorphanol, and serum and urine samples were collected at various times post drug administration for determination of butorphanol concentrations using a highly sensitive liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry method. Serum data were modeled using a nonlinear mixed effect population PK model. The maximum concentration (Cmax) and time to maximum concentration (Tmax) were 139.9 +/- 72.8 ng/mL and 0.43 +/- 0.44 h (mean +/- SD), respectively. Although likely not clinically relevant, but important for drug testing purposes, a prolonged terminal phase was observed, yielding a terminal half-life of 7.67 +/- 1.86 h. Using the blood screening limits proposed by the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit, the detection time for intramuscular administration of butorphanol was estimated to be 96 h.