Experimental production of rabbit mucoid enteritis

Rabbit mucoid enteritis (mucoid enteropathy) is a subacute fatal disease of weanling rabbits with unknown cause. Mucoid enteritis was experimentally produced by ligating the large intestines in rabbits. Of the rabbits with ligated cecum and those with ligated colon, 70% and 45%, respectively, had excessive production of mucus and passed large amounts of mucus with feces, closely resembling the naturally occurring mucoid enteritis. Injection of oxytetracycline into the cecum at the time of ligation prevented the development of mucoid enteritis, and injection of cholestyramine markedly reduced the frequency of the disease in the rabbits with ligated cecum.