[Erythrocyte lipid peroxidation as a diagnostic test in supplying pigs, lambs and chickens with vitamin E]. / Peroksidirane na eritrotsitnite lipidi kato diagnostichen test za osigurenostta na praseta, agneta i pileta s vitamin E.

Experiments with pigs, lambs, sheep, and birds, carried out under various conditions of feeding (with or without supplement or treatment with vitamin E) revealed that the study of the peroxide resistance of erythrocyte lipids could render useful information on the supply of animals with vitamin E. The study of peroxide resistance was shown to be much more accessible than the available chemical methods, and had better reproducibility. This new approach took good consideration of the biologic activity of vitamin E, and was fairly suitable to be employed as a screening diagnostic method. The interpretation of results should take into account the occasional peroxidizing effect produced by heavy metals. With sheep the normal values of erythrocyte lipid peroxidation were 40.3 +/- 1.86; with cattle they were 60.0 +/- 3.2; with pigs--63.7 +/- 3.56; with young birds--64.6 +/- 2.35; and with hen layers--72.8 +/- 4.39.

[Etiopathogenesis and epizootiology of coccidiosis in rabbits]. / Etiopatogeneza i epizootologiia na koktsidiozata po zaitsite.

Studies were carried out on the etiology and epizootiology of rabbit coccidiosis. Three experimental groups of rabbits were infected with intestinal, liver, and mixed intestinal and liver coccidia. The shedding of oocysts and the clinical course of the disease were followed up, with description of the morphologic changes and the results of the biochemical examinations of the blood. A total of eight species of coccidia were established in all cases--Eimeria magna, E. intestinalis, E. piriformis, E. media, E. exigua, E. irresidua, E. perforans, and E. stidae. Predominating were E. magna, E. perforans, and E. irresidua. Results showed that all age groups of rabbits were susceptible to the coccidial infection, mostly the weaned bunnies and young ones aged 2-3 months. It is admitted that under the present conditions of this country's rabbit raising coccidiosis is a disease of a seasonal character. Biochemical investigations of blood taken from experimentally infected rabbits revealed that the changes in the activity of GOT and alkaline phosphatase and in the amount of bilirubin were most pronounced.

[Prevention of ruminal acidosis during the intensive fattening of weanling lambs]. / Profilaktika na turbukhovata atsidoza pri intenzivno ugoiavane na shileta.

Forty-eight intensely fattened weaned lambs, divided into 2 groups were used to test the prophylactic effect of lasalocid with regard to rumen acidosis. The animals were offered complete mixtures ad libitum, containing 80 per cent concentrates and 20 per cent cut meadow hay. The weaned lambs of the test group were given the preparation "Avatek' (with 15 per cent lasalocid) in the course of 60 days with the feed at the rate of 250 g per ton of the complete mixture. Periodic biochemical and hematologic investigations on the animals of the two groups were carried out, following up their body development. The animals of the test group showed higher level of alkaline reserves, volatile fatty acids, and pH values of the rumen content and lower level of lactic acid in the blood and rumen liquid. By the 45th day of the experiment certain changes in the biochemical indices took place (rise of lactic acid and drop of alkaline reserves) as well as arrest of the weight development in the test animals. The average daily gain of the test group over the entire experimental period was 7.74 per cent higher than that of the control animals.

[Clinico-experimental and clinical studies of a ketomethine preparation in sheep and cows]. / Kliniko-eksperimentalni i klinichni prouchvaniia na preparata ketometin pri ovtse i kravi.

Some of the clinical parameters of the preparation ketomethyne, containing propylene glycol, methyonine, and Co bichloride, were comparatively studied with the analogous preparation ursoketin at oral application to sheep and cows. It was found that ketomethyne raised more slowly the level of blood sugar than ursoketin, but maintained it by 24-35 per cent higher than the initial level from the 6th to the 24th hour following treatment. The oral application of ketomethyne had no unfavourable effect on the rumen activity, the general clinical indices body temperature, pulse, respiration), the hematologic indices as hemoglobin and erythrocyte and leukocyte count, and the appetite. Similarly to ursoketin, ketomethyne was not readily taken by animals as judged by what was noted with ruminants in cases where the preparation was given as a supplement to the ordinary amounts of feed (concentrates). It was more successfully offered to the large ruminants when 5 to 8 kg silage and the preparation at the rate of 400-500 cm3 were admixed. With cows having paraclinical signs of ûetosis (hypoglycemia and ketonuria) the oral administration of ketomethyne at 500 cm3 in the course of four consecutive days produced favourable effects (up to 100 per cent). On such basis, therefore, the use of the preparation is worthwhile in the prevention of ketosis in sheep and cows or in their treatment.

[Changes in the serum alkaline phosphatase of sheep and cattle with acute acidosis of the forestomach]. / Izmenenie v serumnata alkalna fosfataza pri ovtse i goveda s akutna atsidoza na predstomashiiata.

Experimental acidosis of the forestomach was induced in 6 lambs and 29 ewes and rams, using starch (5-10 g/kg body mass), lactic acid (0.4-0.5 per cent of the live weight) or concentrates (50-60 g/kg body mass). Acidosis occurred spontaneously in 10 calves and 14 cows following the intake of great amounts of molasses. The changes were followed up in the total activity and properties of the alkaline phosphatase in the blood serum of the diseased animals. It was found that the total activity of the enzyme in the blood serum of the test animals dropped at the 24th hour after the beginning of the experiment, reached its lowest point at the 48th-72nd hour (50 to 70 per cent drop as compared to the initial level), and was still under the initial level with part of the test animals at the 96th hour. The decrease in the total activity of the enzyme in the blood serum was found to be linked with changes in its properties - the resistance to 1-phenylalanine rose, and the resistance to 1-arginine, 1-homoarginine, and heat treatment at 56 degrees C for 10 minutes dropped. The activity of the serum alkaline phosphatase with the spontaneously affected calves and cows was dependably lower than the activity of the enzyme un normal calves and cows. It is believed that the drop of the total activity of the blood serum alkaline phosphatase is chiefly governed by the lowered release in the blood of intestinal alkaline phosphatase as the result of its disturbed synthesis and intestinal absorption.

[Alkaline phosphatase activity and isoenzymes in the blood serum of cattle, sheep and swine]. / Aktivnost i izoenzimi na alkalnata fosfataza v kruven serum ot goveda, ovtse i svine.

Studied were the total activity and the type of isoenzymes of the alkaline phosphatase in blood serum of cattle, sheep, and swine at various ages and different physiologic status. With all three species the enzyme activity showed explicit age dynamic. In month-old calves the activity of the serum phosphatase was 82.8 IU, on an average, and in adult cows--32.2 IU. In month-old lambs the enzyme activity was 310.6 IU, on an average, while in adult sheep it was 62.0 IU. In young pigs it ranged up to 105.0 IU, and in adult swine--up to 32.4 IU. No statistically significant differences in the enzyme activity was established between dry and lactating cows and ewes as well as between rams, boars, and sows. The study on the isoenzymes of the alkaline phosphatase (thermostability, specific chemoinhibitors, and electrophoresis in agar gel) revealed that in month-old calves there was only a bone isoenzyme in the blood serum; in calves that were more advanced in age there appeared also the liver and the intestinal isoenzymes, while in adult cows the intestinal or the liver enzyme of alkaline phosphatase was present only. The blood serum of lambs up to the sixth month of age contained the bone and the intestinal isoenzymes, and that of adult sheep--the liver and the intestinal ones. In pregnant sheep there were even low amounts of the placental isoenzyme of alkaline phosphatase. In pigs up to the sixth month of age the serum phosphatase was shown to be of bone origin, while in the adult swine--chiefly of liver origin.

[Changes in the alkaline phosphatase activity and properties of the blood serum in sheep with experimental liver disease]. / Izmeneniia v aktivnostta i svoistvata na alkalnata fosfataza v kruven serum ot ovtse s eksperimentalno uvrezhdane na cherniia drob.

An acute liver injury was provoked in 13 sheep by using tetrachlormethane. The study traced out the changes in the activity and properties of alkaline phosphatase in the blood serum. It was proved that the total activity of the enzyme increased from an average of 60.7 +/- 7.8 UI to an average of 104.3 +/- 14.8 UI on the 72d hour of the experiment, and then it decreased. In the first 24-48 hours after the treatment with tetrachlormethane the inhibition of the enzyme increased by the use of 1-homoarginine (on an average from 60.0 to 65.6%), whereas the use of 1-phenylalanine put down inhibition (on an average from 36.9 to 31.3%). In the next days the inhibition decreased due to 1-homoarginine (up to an average of 48.5%) and increased due to 1-phenylalanine. It was proved that in the initial phase of the poisoning in the blood serum of sheep the contents of the liver isoenzyme of the alkaline phosphatase increased, whereas in the second phase it was the contents of the liver isoenzyme of the latter that increased.

[Changes in the serum proteins and blood picture of cows suffering with chronic vesical hematuria]. / Promeni v serumnite beltutsi i kruvnata kartina pri kravi, bolni ot khronichna vezikalna khematuriia.

Studies were carried out in a region where hematuria has been recorded. Examined were 79 cows--32 with macrohematuria, 23 with microhematuria, 22 with no deviations, and 2 with experimentally induced hematuria. op in the total proteins was found in the animals of the first group. A lowering trend was observed also of the percent content of albumins as well as a rising one of the total albumins in cows with chronic vesical hematuria, the rise of the globulin percent being chiefly due to changes in the gamma-globulin fraction. Pronounced erythropenia was likewise observed in such animals along with a drop of the hemoglobin content. No substantial changes, however, were established in the ratio of the individual leukocyte classes nor were there any visible deviations in the total leukocyte count.

[Changes in the calcium phosphorus and magnesium content in the blood serum of cows during calving]. / Promeni v sudurzhanieto na kaltsii, fosfor i magnezii v kruvniia serum na kravi po vreme na otelvaneto.

A total of 447 cows were investigated during the dry period, the period following calving, and the period of intense lactation, once each time, and other 55 cows were subjected to systemic periodical examinations in the last month prior to calving and up to the tenth day after it. It was found that the content of serum calcium and inorganic phosphorus dropped in the first days following calving in most of the animals. In about 30% of the cows calcium and inorganic phosphorus dropped as low as the lower physiologic threshold. The blood serum magnesium likewise dropped after calving, however, in the greater part of the investigated animals it remained within the normal range. The alkaline phosphatase activity became slightly weaker in the first days after calving, but in some of the cows the level of the alkaline phosphatase was lower in the period post partum.