Abstract
Five groups of eight pregnant albino mice, at the third stage of pregnancy, were given chloramphenicol (25, 50, 100 or 200
mg
kg
per day) or distilled water (10
ml
kg
per day). The drug or the vehicle was given orally for seven consecutive days. Five groups of 10 offspring each, regardless of sex, were randomly selected from treated mothers and tested for conditioned avoidance, brain seizure threshold and open-field. Conditioned avoidance response indicated that there were significant differences among treatments, days of treatment and animals within the treatments (as reflected in a reduction in learning ability for chloramphenicol-treated offspring). Electroshock seizure threshold showed that there were differences among treatments (as reflected in an increase in brain seizure threshold for chloramphenicol-treated offspring). The open-field test showed significant differences among treatments and among animals within the treatments (as reflected in an increase in fright of chloramphenicol-offspring).