Study of Helicobacter pylori genotype status in cows, sheep, goats and human beings

Abstract

BackgroundHelicobacter pylori is one of the most controversial bacteria in the world causing diverse gastrointestinal diseases. The transmission way of this bacterium still remains unknown. The possibility of zoonotic transmission of H. pylori has been suggested, but is not proven in nonprimate reservoirs. In the current survey, we investigate the presence of H. pylori in cow, sheep and goat stomach, determine the bacterium virulence factors and finally compare the human H. pylori virulence factors and animals in order to examine whether H. pylori might be transmitted from these animals to human beings.MethodsThis cross- sectional study was performed on 800 gastric biopsy specimens of cows, sheep, goats and human beings. The PCR assays was performed to detection of H. pylori, vacA and cagA genes. The PCR products of Ruminant’s samples with positive H. pylori were subjected to DNA sequencing analysis. Statistical tests were applied for data analysis.ResultsOverall 6 (3%) cows, 32 (16%) sheep and 164 (82%) human beings specimens were confirmed to be H. pylori positive; however we were not able to detect this bacterium in all 200 goat samples. The vacA s1a/m1a was the predominant H. pylori genotype in all three kinds of studied population. There was 3.4–8.4% variability and 92.9-98.5% homology between sheep and human samples.ConclusionsConsidering the high sequence homology among DNA of H. pylori isolated from sheep and human, our data suggest that sheep may act as a reservoir for H. pylori and in the some extent share the ancestral host for the bacteria with human.

Genotyping of vacA alleles of <i>Helicobacter pylori</i> strains recovered from some Iranian food items

“…High prevalence of these genotypes have been reported from the various types of foods [4,5,7] and even animals [8]. Yahaghi et al [7] reported that the vacA s1a (37.28 %) and vacA m1a (30.50 %) had the highest prevalence of genotypes in the H. pylori of vegetable and salad samples, while vacA s1c (10.16 %) had the lowest prevalence which was similar to our findings.…”

“…Similar to the conducted studies on the clinical samples [8][9][10]21], the results of our investigation showed the high prevalence of vacA s1a (66.66 %), vacA m2 (56.66 %), vacA m1a (51.66 %), vacA s1am2 (45 %), vacA s1am1a (40 %) and vacA m1am2 (35 %) genotypes in food samples. High prevalence of these genotypes have been reported from the various types of foods [4,5,7] and even animals [8].…”

“…The most commonly known virulence markers among H. pylori strains of different clinical samples of animals and human beings are the vacuolating cytotoxin (vacA) [7][8][9]. The vacA gene is associated with injury to epithelial cells of gastric tract.…”

Helicobacter pyloriand its reservoirs: A correlation with the gastric infection

“…According to Momtaz et al [39] , there is a possibility that zoonotic transmission of H. pylori occurred, but this transmission has not been proven in non-primate reservoirs.…”

“…Based on the overall data available, having a cat as a pet does not put owners at risk of acquiring H. pylori infection. More recently, Momtaz et al [39] analyzed 800 samples, 200 of which were from human beings and 600 of which came from healthy animals (200 cows, 200 sheep and 200 goats). They detected H. pylori and main virulence markers (gene cagA and vacA) using PCR and selected 6 H. pylori-positive samples (3 samples from cows and 3 samples from sheep) for DNA sequencing analysis.…”