Parasitic Hypoalbuminaemia: Studies on Type II Ostertagiasis of Cattle

SUMMARY Serum albumin labelled with 131 iodine was used to measure the intravascular pool and catabolic rate of serum albumin in 8 cattle suffering from type II ostertagiasis and 7 control worm-free animals. The infected cattle, which were all hypoalbuminaemic showed an increased fractional catabolic rate for albumin. The hypoalbuminaemia associated with the disease would appear to be of the hypercatabolic type and this situation may well be due to abnormal leakage of plasma protein·into the gastro-intestinal tract.