Clinical changes in whole-body irradiated cattle

Clinical manifestations of acute radiation sickness in groups of heifers in the age of seven to nine months, gamma-irradiated with doses of 3.7, 2.0, and 1.2 Jkg-1 were studied. The doses induced different stages of clinical manifestations, which made it possible to differentiate severe, medium, and light forms of radiation sickness. The different forms varied with the intensity of the clinical manifestations, with the survival time, and, above all, with the length of the latent stage. The severe form mostly had a lethal course with the exit between the 15th to 19th days, in the case of the medium form the survival time increased to 25 to 28 days, and the light form showed no significant clinical manifestations. (author)