The effects of sodium bicarbonate (0.5 mEq/kg of body weight, 1.0 mEq/kg, 2.0 mEq/kg, and 4.0 mEq/kg) on ionized and total calcium concentrations were determined in clinically normal cats. Also, serum pH, whole blood pH, and serum albumin, serum total protein, and serum phosphorus concentrations were measured. Intravenous administration of sodium bicarbonate to awake cats decreased serum ionized calcium and serum total calcium concentrations. All dosages of sodium bicarbonate were associated with significant decreases of serum ionized calcium concentration. This effect lasted for greater than 180 minutes when cats were given 2.0 mEq/kg or 4.0 mEq/kg. When cats were given 4 mEq of sodium bicarbonate/kg, serum ionized calcium concentration was significantly decreased, compared with that when cats were given lower doses, but only at 10 minutes after infusion. After sodium bicarbonate infusion, serum total calcium concentration, measured by ion-specific electrode and colorimetry, was lower than baseline values at most of the times evaluated. Decreases in serum ionized calcium and serum total calcium concentrations can be attributed only in part to an increase in serum or whole blood pH and to a decrease in serum protein concentration. Serum total calcium concentrations measured by ion-specific electrode and by colorimetry were positively correlated, but the variability was high. Only 44% of the varibility in serum ionized calcium concentration could be predicted when serum total calcium, albumin, total protein, phosphorus, and bicarbonate concentrations and pH were considered.

Mastitis was induced in 4 lactating cows by inoculation of Klebsiella pneumoniae (10(7) organisms/ml) via the teat canal. Sterile isotonic saline solution (1 ml) was instilled into designated control quarters via the teat canal. Changes in milk leukotriene B4 and C4 (LTB4, LTC4) concentrations, milk somatic cell counts, and milk bovine serum albumin concentration were monitored over a 24-hour postinoculation period. Milk LTB4 concentration before inoculation in control quarters and quarters later to be infected was 376 +/- 45 and 326 +/- 56 pg/ml of milk, respectively. A significant (P less than 0.05) increase in milk LTB4 concentration in the infected quarters was first observed at postinoculation hour 6, and milk LTB4 concentration in infected quarters generally remained significantly high through postinoculation hour 14. Thereafter, milk LTB4 concentration in infected quarters was not significantly different from the concentration in control quarters. Measurable amounts of LTC4 were not detected in the milk of either control or infected quarters. Milk bovine serum albumin concentration in the infected quarters generally was high throughout the study, as were milk somatic cell counts. The results of this study suggested that LTB4 contributes to the pathogenesis of bovine mastitis.

Antibodies to bovine serum albumin were detected in swine sera by use of an immunoblotting technique. Such sera had false-positive reactions, as determined by results of African swine fever virus serodiagnostic techniques when bovine serum albumin was a contaminant in the soluble cytoplasmic antigen obtained from infected cells cultured in the presence of bovine serum. The soluble cytoplasmic antigen obtained from cell cultures infected with African swine fever virus in the presence of porcine serum did not react with the false-positive sera and, therefore, was used for African swine fever virus serodiagnostic methods, with 0% false-positive results.