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A histological, histochemical and morphometric study was performed on submandibular salivary glands from 13 dogs which had presented with a submandibular mass or swelling that proved to be a portion of non-inflammatory and non-neoplastic submandibular salivary gland. There were no consistent changes in lectin-binding histochemistry or immunohistochemical expression of various cell markers, and, in most cases, there was no measurable difference in acinar size in the affected gland. The possible explanation for the clinical salivary gland enlargement is therefore unclear.

Benign connective tumours of the canine salivary glands are rare. This report describes lipomatous infiltration of parotid or submandibular salivary glands in seven dogs in which the glands were enlarged as a result of infiltration by fat cells; they appeared to have been successfully treated by local excision. The precise cause of the lipomatous infiltration in the dogs is unclear but different causes of similar lesions in humans are discussed.

A connective tissue disease resembling the human Ehlers-Danlos syndrome is reported in two sibling rabbits about four months old. The clinical signs included skin hyperextensibility and fragility and poor wound healing. There were ultrastructural abnormalities in the structure of the collagen fibrils and in their arrangement in bundles of fibres. Affected rabbits may be a useful laboratory animal model for collagen disorders in human beings.

A distinctive lymphadenopathy in nine cats, four of which were of the Longhair breed, was characterized by capillary vasoproliferation and lymphoid atrophy. It occurred in the cervical or inguinal regions. The animals were, apart from local manifestations, healthy at the time and remained so subsequently. In the absence of any clinical or morphological evidence for viral, neoplastic or developmental aetiologies, we postulate an ischaemic pathogenesis for the lesions which may be related to human "vascular transformation of lymph node sinuses". The lesions appear to be by no means a rare cause of non-neoplastic lymphadenopathy in domestic cats, since they constituted over 5 per cent of surgical biopsies of cat lymph nodes seen in the past 5 years. The lesions merit wider recognition and investigation.

Serum immunoglobulin concentrations in clinically healthy German shepherd dogs were compared with those in mongrel dogs and Irish setters. Serum IgA concentrations were significantly lower in the German shepherd dogs than in the other two groups, while there were no differences in the concentrations of IgM or IgG. These findings suggest that production of IgA by gut associated lymphoid tissue may be abnormally low in the German shepherd dog.