A spiral microorganism in the stomach of pigs

Light and electron microscopic and microbiologic evaluations were performed on mucosa of stomachs from 120 healthy slaughtered pigs. Helicobacter pylori was not found, but a tightly spiralled bacterium, not previously described, was seen in histological sections and/or in carbol fuchsin stained smears in 13 (10.8%) stomachs. In paraffin sections stained with carbol fuchsin, the bacteria were seen in the mucus of the lumen of the antral pits and in the mucosa surface within and beneath the mucus. In this sections of Polilyte embedded tissue the bacteria had three to eight spiral turns per cell (mean = five), flattened ends, a Gram-negative cell-wall structure and a sheathed flagella. The urease test was positive in gastric mucosa of 13 bacteria-positive pigs (10.8%). The microorganism was not cultured and did not cross-react with polyclonal antibodies raised in rabbits against H. pylori. Superficial chronic gastritis and "borderline" gastritis were observed in antral mucosa of 10 (76.9%) and of two (15.4%) spiral bacteria-positive pigs, respectively.