[Pathomorphology of radiation sickness in sheep following whole body roentgen irradiation].

Whole-body X-ray treatment was experimentally applied (380 median-line dosage) to eight Merino mutton sheep aged approximately one year. Five of the test animals were lost between 16 and 25 days after irradiation. A great diversity of pathomorphological changes was recorded from organs and tissues, and the most important pathological processes which occurred concomitantly with acute to subacute radiation syndrome of sheep were defective haematopoiesis, septico-toxic processes, haemorrhagic diathesis, and partial epilation. Severe damage to the organs involved in haematopoiesis was one of the primary pathological processes and reflected mainly in lymphopenia, agranulocytosis, and thrombocytopenia, in other words, with lymphopoieses, granulopoiesis, and thrombocytopoiesis particularly involved. Insufficiency of cellular (and humoral) defence would obviously cause germ flooding of the organism, starting from the intestine, and eventually lead to septic intoxication. Haemorrhagic diathesis was found to occur only short of death and is thought to result from thrombocytopenia due to damage to thrombopoiesis as well as from septico-toxic effects upon the blood coagulation and partitioning vascular system. Loss of wool (epilation) was recordable only from neck and shoulder regions, and even there it was on the decline.