Rabbits were injected intravenously with 10 to 100 ng of staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA) per kg, and colonic temperatures were monitored. The febrile responses were compared with circulating levels of interferon (IFN), tumor necrosis factor (TNF), interleukin-1 (IL-1), IL-2, and IL-6 just before the injection of SEA. Both colonic temperatures and circulating levels of IFN, TNF, and IL-2 started to rise at 1 to 2 h and reached their peak levels at 3 to 5 h after SEA injection. Both the fever and the increased circulating levels of IFN, TNF, and IL-2 produced by SEA were decreased by pretreatment with indomethacin (a cyclo-oxygenase inhibitor) (15 mg/kg, intraperitoneally), anisomycin (a protein synthesis inhibitor) (15 mg/kg, subcutaneously), or dexamethasone (an effective anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressive agent) (4 mg/kg, intravenously) in rabbits. Rabbits were injected intravenously with 30 ng of SEA per kg on four consecutive days, and colonic temperatures were monitored. Compared to rabbits that received the single injection of SEA, rabbits that received four consecutive injections of SEA showed a lesser increase in circulating levels of IFN, TNF, and IL-2 as well as colonic temperatures in response to an intravenous dose of SEA (30 ng/kg). The data suggest that the prevention of the febrile response elicited by SEA by indomethacin, anisomycin, or dexamethasone is due to prevention by these compounds of the increase in the circulating levels of IFN, TNF, and IL-2. The pyrogenic hyporesponsiveness to repeated injection of SEA is associated with decreased production of these circulating cytokines.