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Brisket Disease: Influence Of Hypoxia And An Induced Calcium-Potassium Imbalance On The Mineral Composition Of Blood, Heart, Liver, Kidney, And Bone, David Eugene Bailey

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Brisket disease, an affliction of cattle, is important because of: (1) economic losses, (2) similarities to chronic mountain sickness in humans, and (3) the provision of experimental animals for cardiac research. In afflicted cattle, right cardiac ventricular hypertrophy and dilatation occur and are manifestations of attempted compensation for reduced alveolar oxygen by increasing pulmonary circulation.

Geographic variations in occurrence of brisket disease in Utah indicate that hypoxia is not the sole causative factor. From the findings that afflicted cattle exhibit hypocalcemia and hyperkalemia, and the disease occurs most commonly in wet meadowland environments where potassium is high and calcium low …