Wet-tail of golden hamsters (Mesocricetus auratus) has been referred to as proliferative ileitis, regional enteritis, terminal ileitis, enzootic intestinal adeno- carcinoma, atypical ileal hyperplasia, and hamster enteritis. The disease will be referred to as hamster enteritis (HE) in this review. Hamster enteritis is characterized clinically by diarrhoea in weanlings, and pathologically by enteritis, sometimes proliferative, involving prim- arily the small intestine. Trum & Routledge (1967) stated that 'wet-tailor terminal ileitis is the only recognizable common disease syndrome in the hamster'. Although this was an exaggeration because other common diseases have been well described, HE is still the most common spon-