Occurrence of Helicobacter spp. in cats

Spiral shaped bacteria have been identified in the gastric mucosa of animals more than 100 years ago. However, it was not possible to correlate an infection with inflammatory processes. Here we address the questions, whether cats are carriers of H, pylori, whether other species of Helicobacter spp., like H. heilmannii or H. felis are detectable and whether the infection with Helicobacter spp. causes alteration of the gastric mucosa. Biopsies were taken from the cardia, fundus/corpus and the antrum pylori analysed microbiologically for H. pylori, molecular biologically and immunohistologically. 100 cats at the age of 8 weeks to 23 years from private households having undergone recently euthanasia or deceased, were examined. All those cats included in the study were from the Gottingen area. H. pylori was not detectable in any of the analysed cats. H. heilmannii and H. felis was detected in 84 % and 20 % respectively, using molecular biological methods. Using histological techniques Helicobacter spp. was identified in 82 % of the cats. In these cases infected as well as not infected cats had either no or moderate to severe signs of a gastritis. A correlation between inflammation and infection was not detectable.