Ml. Hanninen et al., CULTURE AND CHARACTERISTICS OF HELICOBACTER-BIZZOZERONII, A NEW CANINE GASTRIC HELICOBACTER SP, International journal of systematic bacteriology, 46(1), 1996, pp. 160-166
Organisms whose cells were large, tight spirals were isolated from gas
tric biopsies of dogs. Touch cytology samples from all of the dogs con
tained large spiral organisms. Characteristics of 10 strains are descr
ibed. These organisms were 5 to 10 mu m long by 0.3 mu m wide, and eac
h cell had 10 to 20 sheathed flagella at both ends of the cell. The ce
lls did not have periplasmic fibrils. These organisms were microaeroph
ilic and grew at 37 and 42 degrees C but not at 25 degrees C on brain
heart infusion agar containing blood. They did not grow on brucella bl
ood agar, They were catalase and oxidase positive, hydrolyzed urea but
not hippurate, reduced nitrate, and were resistant to nalidixic acid
but susceptible to cephalothin and metronidazole. In contrast to Helic
obacter felis, they hydrolyzed indoxyl acetate, The sodium dodecyl sul
fate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis protein profiles of all of the
strains were similar, and the protein patterns of these organisms dif
fered from those of other Helicobacter spp, Dot blot DNA-DNA hybridiza
tion experiments revealed that the new strains were closely related to
each other but clearly different from H. felis, Helicobacter pylori,
Helicobacter mustelae, and Campylobacter jejuni., The name Helicobacte
r bizzozeronii sp, nov, is proposed for these organisms, Our results s
uggest that other ''uncultured'' gastric helicobacters may be cultured
if optimal culture conditions are found.