A previous study has shown that long-term feeding of ethanol in high doses (36% of total calories) causes marked changes in intestinal mucosal disaccharidase activity as well as blunting of the intestinal villi. To determine whether similar damage occurs in response to a more moderate ethanol exposure, we pair fed rats a liquid diet that provided 15.5% of total calories from ethanol for 5 weeks. In the proximal segment of the intestine, we found that ethanol did not affect the total activities of maltase (8.0 +/- 2.4 U vs. control value of 6.7 +/- 1.8 U), sucrase (1.5 +/- 0.5 U vs. control of 1.2 +/- 0.3 U), or lactase (125 +/- 42 mU vs. control of 107 +/- 36 mU). Similarly, we found no differences from control values for the three disaccharidases in the middle or distal small bowel. The mucosal protein content of the experimental animals did not differ from values found in the control animals. In addition, no change in intestinal villus height or crypt depth was detected. The zinc content of hair and serum was not affected by the ethanol feeding. We conclude that prolonged ingestion of a moderate dose of ethanol does not damage the small intestinal disaccharidase enzymes, mucosal protein content, or intestinal architecture.