Enterotoxigenicity of human and animal isolates of Campylobacter jejuni in ligated rat ileal loops.

Human and animal isolates of Campylobacter jejuni were tested for enterotoxigenicity in ligated loop of Charles-Foster rats. Of 21 isolates, 13 were proved to be toxin-positive in the initial experiments. However, the remaining 8 required one to three passages through the rat ileal loop before showing the capacity to produce enterotoxin. All isolates caused fluid accumulation comparable with the amount produced by the standard toxigenic strain of Vibrio cholerae 01 1naba 569B. The isolates of C. jejuni from human and animal sources did not show any quantitative difference in their capacity to produce enterotoxin.