Hamster (Mesocricetus auratus) enteritis caused by epithelial cell-invasive Escherichia coli

When inoculated orally, Escherichia coli strain 1056 caused acute enteritis in 7 of 22 weanling hamsters. E. coli strain 1056 was isolated from the ileum of a hamster with proliferative ileitis. It was lactose negative, nonmotile, and anaerogenic. By electron microscopy and indirect fluorescent-antibody techniques, E. coli strain 1056 was detected in absorptive epithelial cells, resembling invasive E. coli and shigella infections of other species. Ileitis did not progress to epithelial cell hyperplasia, which is characteristic of proliferative ileitis of hamsters. A control group of 10 hamsters, inoculated with nonenteropathogenic E. coli isolated from a normal hamster, did not develop signs or lesions.