Lactic acid and glucose metabolism in healthy, lactic acid-infused, and diarrheic calves.

Kinetics of glucose and lactate metabolism were measured in healthy (normal) calves, healthy calves infused with lactate, and in calves which had received an enteropathogenic coronavirus inoculum and had become diarrheic. Lactate utilization was positively correlated with blood lactate concentration in the healthy calves, but its turnover was markedly reduced in diarrheic animals. The decreased turnover was not due to inhibition of lactate oxidation, but appeared to relate to decreased gluconeogenesis. Glucose entry rate was not affected by diarrhea, but was a function of glucose concentration.