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, alpha(1)-, alpha(2)-, 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.