Studies of Johne's Disease in Canada: XI. Complement-Fixation Titres and Blood Cell Picture

Complement-fixation titres and haemograms were determined monthly during a period of approximately one year for nine cattle with Johne's disease. Three of four experimentally infected animals died during the interval or shortly afterwards; all three developed high complement-fixing titres with Johne's bacillus antigen. The experimentally infected animal that survived was serologically reactive for a few months, then became negative. One of the naturally infected cows exhibited a relatively high complement-fixing titre throughout but the other four were serologically negative or occasionally weekly reactive. All nine cattle showed a variable degree of neutrophilia and lymphopaenia but an absolute eosinopaenia was observed only in the three that died.     

Studies of Johne's Disease in Canada: XII. Electrophoretic Analysis of Changes in Serum Proteins in Infected Cattle and Sheep

Electrophoretic examinations were made on sera collected monthly for a period of eleven months from ten cattle naturally or experimentally infected with Johne''s bacilli and from ten contact sheep. With one exception, the percentage estimates for the four major classes of serum proteins, albumin, alpha₁-, alpha₂-, beta- and gamma-globulins did not differ significantly in sera from infected and non-infected, presumably healthy cattle. One cow with a persistently high complement-fixing titre with Johne''s bacillus antigen, showed an exceptionally high proportion of gamma-globulin in its serum. The percentage of gamma-globulin tended to be higher in sera of contact sheep than in that of normal sheep sera but the monthly variation in the relative proportion of these and other globulins showed no evident relationship to the fluctuations observed in the specific complement-fixing and anti-complementary properties of these sera.