Prevalence of Helicobacter-Like bacteria in the gastric mucosa of pigs slaughtered in south-east spain

Abstract

We report an investigation of the prevalence of Helicobacter-like organisms morphologically similar to Candidatus Helicobacter suis (HLOs) detected by carbolfucsin in pig’s gastric mucosa (cardiac, fundic and pyloric areas) and its relationship with mortality by gastric ulcer during fattening, the lesional stage at slaughter and the breed. Three studies were carried out in 1998 (study 1), 2000 (study 2) and 2005 (study 3) and animals in studies 1 and 3 were from the same farms of origin and common nursery. Study 1 included samples from 60 randomly selected stomachs of pigs from two batches showing very different mortality by acute gastric ulceration during fi nishing collected at slaughter. In study 2, samples were from Iberian, Duroc and Landrace animals. Study 3 included 20 stomachs from crossbreed animals. No relationship was found between the presence and density of bacteria with the mortality by gastric ulcer or with the lesional score or breed. However, a comparison of the samples collected in both studies pointed to a substantial increase in the prevalence and density of HLOs in gastric mucosa in study 2, showing an infl uence of the density in the cardiac area on the non-glandular mucosa lesional stage (p=0.011) There were differences between samples studied in 1998 and those collected in 2000 and 2005, being none signifi cant between the latter. Regarding lesional severity, Iberian pigs mean lesional score was lower than in Landrace and Duroc pigs (p<0.001) and these had a similar score. The increase HLO infection overtime coincides with the ban in the use of antimicrobials as growth promoters in the European Union in 1998 and further studies should be carried out to confi rm this important association.