Studies of escherichia coli in gnotobiotic pigs. VI. Effects of feeding bacteria-free filtrates of broth cultures.

Nine gnotobiotic pigs derived from one gilt were fed bacteria-free filtrates prepared from: 1) cultures of an enteropathogenic strain of Escherichia coli 09:K.:NM (Strain 340), 2) cultures of a nonenteropathogenic strain of E. coli 08.K..H16 (Strain CDC-1466-56), and 3) uninoculated culture medium. Diarrhea was observed initially two to four hours after feeding the filtrate prepared from the enteropathogenic E. coli. The duration of diarrhea was five to ten hours. No diarrhea was observed after feeding filtrate prepared from uninoculated medium or cultures of nonenteropathogenic E. coli. The pH values of the feces increased with the onset of diarrhea and decreased to normal after diarrhea stopped. No histopathological lesions were found.