HELICOBACTER PYLORI-LIKE BACTERIUM IN PIGS
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Helicobacter pylori is blamed for a variety of gastrointestinal symptoms in humans and is also diagnosed in dogs. A related bacterium can cause severe gastroesophageal ulcers in piglets depending from the diet, as this very informative recently published study illustrates.
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Groups of gnotobiotic piglets were orally inoculated at 3 days of age with either Helicobacter heilmannii (Hh) or a newly described porcine-origin gastric Helicobacter pylori (Hp)-like bacterium. Three Hh-infected and 6 porcine Hp-likeinfected swine were fed a milk replacement diet containing 510% (v/v) sterile corn syrup as a dietary source of fermentable carbohydrate.
None of the piglets infected with Hh and supplemented with corn syrup developed gastric mucosal ulcers; 2 developed small erosive lesions in the pars esophagea.
In contrast, all 6 dietary carbohydrate-supplemented Hp-likeinfected swine developed severe gastroesophageal ulcers; 1 of these ex-sanguinated into the stomach and died before the end of the experiment.
Four of these 6 piglets had grossly evident partially digested blood in the intestinal lumens, indicative of bleeding into the gastrointestinal tract from the stomach.
These data suggest that a high carbohydrate diet and gastric colonization by porcine Hp-like bacteria facilitate development of clinically significant gastroesophageal ulcers.
Source: S. Krakowka and J. Ellis (2006): Reproduction of Severe Gastroesophageal Ulcers (GEU) in Gnotobiotic Swine Infected with Porcine Helicobacter pylori-like Bacteria. In: Vet Pathol 43:956-962 (2006)
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