Chronic typhlitis in baboons fed a semisynthetic low-fibre diet.

Baboons were fed a low-fibre, semisynthetic diet for 20 months. After this period, 19 of 20 animals were found to have chronic typhlitis at postmortem examination. In contrast, baboons that had been fed a similar diet for approximately 3 months, did not show this inflammatory change of the caecum. One baboon that was sacrificed after 10 months on the diet also did not have typhlitis. As no indications of an infectious or other cause could be found, it was ocncluded that the low fibre content of the diet might have been a causative factor of the typhlitis observed.