Changes in Levels of Salivary Sodium and Potassium Associated with the Mustering of Beef Cattle

Abstract

During the course of some studies of body water in grazing steers (Post and Jenkins, unpublished data), some observations were made of salivary sodium (Na) and potassium (K) to investigate possible associations. The parotid salivary sodium/potassium (Na/K) ratio has been proposed as an index of the secretion of electrolyte-active steroids (Goding and Denton 1957, 1959; Denton, Goding, and Wright 1959).