Detection of Helicobacter equorum in Equine in Egypt

Helicobacter pylori, previously known as Campylobacter pylori, is a gram-negative, microaerophilic, spiral (helical), multi-flagellated bacterium usually found in the stomach, horses, calves, pigs, rabbits, and chickens were evaluated for Helicobacter presence, and the pathogenetic effect on their gastric mucosa. Therefore in our study, fifty gastric lavage and fecal samples were collected from fifty diseased horses and application of Lateral Flow and PCR assays for detection of Helicobacter species. Positive results confirmed only by PCR which revealed that twelve samples were positive among the examined samples (24%), sequencing of 16s rRNA gene amplicon shared 100% identity with H.equorum on GenBank, young foals show higher prevalence than adult horses. Occasionaly, H.equorum act as a potential zoonotic risk hazard thus, further studies are needed to investigate the zoonotic pathway to the human contacts.