Publication showing a high percentage of human gastric patients infected with non-Helicobacter pylori Helicobacter (NHPH) species that naturally colonize the stomach of cats, dogs and pigs – Research established through a collaboration between @Faculty of Veterinary Medicine - Ghent University, @AZ Maria Middelares Ghent, @University of Antwerp and @az groeninge Kortrijk.

Gastric NHPHs have previously been sporadically linked with gastric disease in human patients. Natural hosts of these bacteria include cats, dogs and pigs, and evidence for transmission to humans has been reported in several case studies and smaller cohort studies.

In the current study, gastric NHPHs were detected in 29.1% and 27.7% in a retrospective and a prospective patient cohort, respectively, which consisted of gastric patients suffering from chronic stomach inflammation, stomach ulcers and gastric MALT lymphoma. H. pylori as a causal factor was excluded.

The study reports important findings including a potential cause and involvement of these animal-associated NHPHs in human gastric disease, with clinical and histological improvement following antibiotic therapy in several cases. Regarding the diagnostics for gastric NHPHs, molecular techniques such as PCR and sequencing were proven to be the superior detection techniques as opposed to classical microscopy, and saliva sampling was shown to be an insensitive and inaccurate alternative diagnostic method compared to gastric biopsy sampling.