[Vitamin A requirement of growing swine. 2. Effect of the vitamin A supply on the vitamin A concentrations in the liver and plasma of piglets and fattening swine]. / Untersuchungen zum Vitamin-A-Bedarf des wachsenden Schweines. 2. Mitteilung Der Einfluss der Vitamin-A-Versorgung auf die Vitamin-A-Konzentration der Leber und des Plasmas von Ferkeln und Mastschweinen.

In 9 experiments the vitamin A content of the livers of 64 newborn (still births and deaths up to 48 h p.p.) and 69 weaned piglets, 122 growers and 110 fattening pigs was investigated after slaughtering or autopsy. Liver samples were taken from 78 growers by means of biopsy after latarotomy. A fluorometric analysis of the plasma vitamin A level was made. At the time of birth the vitamin A content of the piglet livers was less than 100 IU/g and did not show any differences between the experiments. At the time of weaning, however, the livers of piglets from large-scale production showed a three times higher content (175 IU/g liver) in comparison to those from traditional production. Highly significant linear relations were established between the vitamin A content of the feed and the liver. According to these, a liver content of vitamin A of approximately equal to 30 IU/g is ensured by approximately equal to 2,000 IU in weaning piglets and by approximately equal to 800 IU vitamin A/kg feed in fattening pigs. The vitamin A activity of the beta-carotene in weaners was ascertained as less than 100 IU/mg. The plasma vitamin A level indicated the vitamin A status only in the range of deficient supply. A different plasma content could not be detected between 1,000 and 4,000 IU vitamin A/kg feed. According to this, a semilogarithmic relation was calculated according to the model of a saturation curve between the vitamin A content of the plasma and the liver. The threshold value for the decrease of the plasma level under 45 IU vitamin A/dl is 35 IU/g liver. Due to the low definiteness measure (B = 0.52) the relation cannot be applied to the individual animal. A contamination of 1,000 mg nitrite/kg feed had a low, and in the course of the experiment decreasing, influence on the vitamin A content of plasma and liver.

[Effect of immunization on the quantitative behavior of gamma globulins in the blood serum of cattle following whole-body x-ray irradiation]. / Der Einfluss einer Immunisierung auf das quantitative Verhalten der Gammaglobuline in Blutserum von Kälbern nach einer Röntgenganzkörperbestrahlung.

Five experiment series were applied to 38 calves, aged between two-and-a-half and four months, using whole-body exposure to X-ray treatment based on median lethal doses (MLD) between 1.2 Gy and 1.7 Gy. Various methods of immunisation were simultaneously applied, and their effects on irradiation-caused response of gamma globulin concentrations in blood serum were studied. Gamma globulin levels were determined by Kunkel's zinc sulphate turbidity test. Immunisation applied between 14 and 21 days prior to irradiation resulted on obvious stimulation of gamma globulin production. In two experiments with parenteral antigen application, gamma globulin levels increased through about 14 days in apparently irradiated animals declined, after that period of time, but they continued to rise in really irradiated probands. A high lethal dose of 1.7 Gy, however, was followed by significant drop, three weeks after irradiation, that is in concomitance with the climax of the radiation syndrome. When 1.5 Gy were used, rise in gamma globulin concentration was recordable also following oral administration of antigen. Response of irradiated animals was even more clearly pronounced by secondary reaction of antibody formation, following booster action due to experimental infection with homologous germs. The stimulating effect of irradiation upon gamma globulin levels in blood serum, when oral or parenteral immunisation had taken place, prior to irradiation, has been attributed to reaction of the immune-globulin producing system to the release of tissue proteins or tissue antigens. Immunisation, prior to irradiation, stimulated the immunological system which underwent stronger regeneration, after irradiation, or had obviously acquired higher resistance to radiation.

[Occurrence of various enzymes in synovial fluid of cattle and swine]. / Zum Vorkommen einiger Enzyme in der Gelenkflüssigkeit von Rind und Schwein.

The activities of lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), fructose-1.6-diphosphate aldolase (ALD), aspartate aminotransferase (AspAT), alkaline phosphatase (AP), and N-acetyl-beta-glucosaminidase (NAG) were determined on the basis of 75 synovia samples taken from the tarsal joints (Art. talocruralis) of 41 cattle for slaughter of different sexes and aged between one and 13 years as well as on the basis of 56 synovia samples taken from the knee joints (Art. femoropatellaris), tarsal joints (Art. talocruralis), and carpal joints (Art. intercarpicus) of 20 fattening pigs. Both the general condition and cell content of synovial fluid in clinically intact joints are described. The activities of ALD and AspAT (less than 15 IU/l), LDH (less than 200 IU/l), and NAG (less than 6,000 IU/l) in synovial fluid of cattle were much lower than those in blood serum of the same species. They were normally distributed. AP activity (less than 150 IU/l) in synovial fluid, however, was higher by several factors as compared to activity in blblished. In swine synovial AspAT and AP activities were just as high as in blood serum, while LDH activities were higher by 1.5 times. Major NAG activity was observed, as well. All enzyme activities were characterised by normal distribution. All five LDH isoenzymes but only one AP isoenzyme were established. The above data were compared with findings reported by other authors, and the comparison showed these results as being characteristic of synovial enzyme activities in clinically intact joints of the two species under review.

[Pathomorphology of radiation sickness in sheep following whole body roentgen irradiation]. / Untersuchungen zur Pathomorphologie der Strahlendrankheit des Schafes nach Röntgenganzkörperbestrahlung.

Whole-body X-ray treatment was experimentally applied (380 median-line dosage) to eight Merino mutton sheep aged approximately one year. Five of the test animals were lost between 16 and 25 days after irradiation. A great diversity of pathomorphological changes was recorded from organs and tissues, and the most important pathological processes which occurred concomitantly with acute to subacute radiation syndrome of sheep were defective haematopoiesis, septico-toxic processes, haemorrhagic diathesis, and partial epilation. Severe damage to the organs involved in haematopoiesis was one of the primary pathological processes and reflected mainly in lymphopenia, agranulocytosis, and thrombocytopenia, in other words, with lymphopoieses, granulopoiesis, and thrombocytopoiesis particularly involved. Insufficiency of cellular (and humoral) defence would obviously cause germ flooding of the organism, starting from the intestine, and eventually lead to septic intoxication. Haemorrhagic diathesis was found to occur only short of death and is thought to result from thrombocytopenia due to damage to thrombopoiesis as well as from septico-toxic effects upon the blood coagulation and partitioning vascular system. Loss of wool (epilation) was recordable only from neck and shoulder regions, and even there it was on the decline.

[Pathomorphology and pathogenesis of radiation sickness in calves and young cattle following whole body roentgen irradiation]. / Untersuchungen zur Pathomorphologie und Pathogenese der Strahlenkrankheit des Kalbes und Jungrindes nach Röntgenganzkörperbestrahlung.

Here are the most important pathomorphological findings recorded from 14 calves or heads of young cattle following whole-body X-ray treatment (170 R and u50 R median-line dosage): 1. Damage was caused to the haematopoietic system, with the most severe effects on granulopoiesis, thrombocytopoiesis, and lymphopoiesis, but less conspicuous lesion of erythropoiesis. 2. Haemorrhagic diathesis developed together with pneumonia in 86 per cent of all cases, manifested in most of them as severe fibrinous pneumonia and pleuropneumonia (in 75 per cent of the cases) and progressing pericarditis. 3. Liver degeneration occurred to all animals, usually in the form of centrobular liver cell necrobiosis (86 per cent), with most of the cases accompanied by diffuse degenerative hepatoparenchymal damage (80 per cent) as well as by granular degeneration of the myocardium and acute fubulonephrosis, the latter two processes obviously developing only short time before death. 4. Catarrhal as well as fibrinous and circumscribed diphtheroid enteritis developed in 43 per cent of all animals, those which had received a median-line dosage of 170 R. 5. Deficiency in supply was recorded, too, with severe damage to the haematopoietic organs being in the focus of the pathological process. That damage actually was the cause of the haematologically established granulocytopenia or agranulocytosis, thrombocytopenia, and lymphopenia. That was the background against which radiation syndrome of calf could be accompanied by activation of latent or subclinical infection of respiratory organs and the development of severe pneumonia as well as by changes in the intestinal flora leading to the outbreak of enteritis. The collapse of cellular defence mechanisms obviously caused intestinal induction of resorption of bacterial toxins and decomposed tissue products, with the pneumonia-damaged lungs being involved. The results eventually were intoxication with haemodynamic disorders, increase in vascular permeability, and degenerative damage to the parenchyma. Haemorrhagic diathesis was the result of thrombocytopenia and, possibly, endotoxic or toxic damage to the coagulation and blood vessel system. Further pathogenetic aspects relating to the radiation syndrome in calf and young cattle are discussed.

[Haptoglobin in domestic mammals. V. Plasma haptoglobin level in cattle under pathological conditions]. / Haptoglobin bei Haussäugetieren V. Mitteilung: Plasma-Haptoglobin-Spiegel beim Rind unter pathologischen Bedingungen

The haptoglobine concentration in the blood plasma of cattle tends to rise to more than 10 mg/100 ml in the presence of acute inflammation anywhere in the organism. They were 40 mg/100 ml and above in the presence of traumatic reticuloperitonitis. The absence of haptoglobin multiplication in the plasma is a high-probability indicator to the absence of that inflammatory process. chronic inflammation will only in exceptional cases entail plasma-haptoglobin multiplication. Concentrations will not be pathologically increased in cattle with positive reaction to haematological testing for leucosis.