Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori and Associated Risk Factors among Dyspeptic Patients and Dogs in Matrouh Province Regarding the Zoonotic Risks

Abstract

Helicobacter pylori is considered as one of the most threatening zoonosis all over the world with over half of the world ’ s population was suffered from this contagious pathogen. The aim of the study was to determine the H. pylori prevalence rate between human and dogs in Matrouh Province through examining 200 stool samples from both hosts using ELISA based detection of H. pylori antigen and 16S rRNA PCR. The results of the overall prevalence H. pylori in the current study by PCR and ELISA was 42% and 47.5%, respectively. Based on the ELISA results, it was revealed that the prevalence in dogs was 51% with statistically significant association between the prevalence and the age groups or dog breeds. On the other hand, no statistically significant associations were found between H. pylori prevalence and sex, locality, and health status of the examined dogs. Furthermore, the ELISA-based prevalence of the disease in human was 44% being higher in smokers and dyspeptic patients than non-smokers and apparently healthy individuals with statistically significant relationship between the prevalence and both smoking habits and health status. Conclusively, our findings suggested that companion animals could transmit the infection to humans.