The aim of the present study was to investigate the short-term (8-day) effects of feeding a raw soybean diet on exocrine pancreatic secretion and the plasma levels of gastrointestinal hormones in pigs. After adaptation to a heated soybean diet, 6 pigs (36.5 +/- 0.8 kg) were fitted with permanent fistulae of the pancreatic duct, the duodenum and a carotid artery. After post-surgical recovery of 8 days, the animals were submitted to two experimental periods, a 4-day period during which they were fed the heated soybean diet and an 8-day period during which they received the raw soybean diet. Exocrine pancreatic secretion and plasma levels of secretin, cholecystokinin, VIP, PP, somatostatin and gastrin were monitored each day of the two experimental periods. On the first day of raw soybean ingestion and till its end, the daily volume of pancreatic juice was higher than the mean volume measured during heated soybean ingestion. On the contrary, daily total protein output was unchanged. Specific activities of chymotrypsin, amylase and lipase were not modified by the raw soybean diet whereas, from the third day of the experimental period, that of trypsin was higher than the corresponding mean value determined during the first experimental period. Plasma levels of secretin and VIP were higher throughout raw soybean ingestion than the corresponding mean levels determined during the first experimental period. The plasma level of cholecystokinin increased only slightly and in the first days of the second experimental period only. The other gastrointestinal hormones studied were slightly (gastrin) or not (somatostatin, PP) affected by raw soybean feeding. It is suggested that feedback control of exocrine pancreatic secretion in pigs was the mechanism involved in the increase of pancreatic juice observed when raw soybean was fed. This volume increase would result from secretin release into the blood.