Ovine ketosis. V. Ketone body and blood glucose levels of Merino ewes during the preclinical, clinical and postclinical stages of pregnancy disease.

Most of the workers who have studied pregnancy disease (Fraser, Godden, Snook & Thomson, 1938; Groenewald, Graf, Bekker, Malan & Clark, 1941 , and Gill & Thomson, 1954) have drawn attention to the presence of variable degrees of hypoglycaemia while a number have also noted a degree of hyperketonaemia. There is, however, little or no information available concerning the fluctuations which occur in the blood levels of ketone bodies and glucose from day to day prior to, and throughout, the course of the disease. We felt that such information, and particularly that obtained during the preclinical stages, was more likely to contribute to our understanding of the basic causes of this metabolic disorder than information confined to the clinical stage. Accordingly an attempt was made to induce the disease in Merino ewes, and to follow the blood levels of these two metabolites through the preclinical, clinical and postclinical stages.