Prevalence of Helicobacter in laboratory mice in Thailand

• Main Authors: Mathurot Duangchanchot, Rapee Inpunkaew, Pravate Thongsiri, Nobuhito Hayashimoto, Nobuhiro Gemma, Masaru Nikaido, Masayoshi Takahashi, Kanchana Kengkoom
• Other Authors: Mahidol University
• Format: Article
• Published: 2018
• Subjects: Agricultural and Biological Sciences; Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology; Veterinary
• Online Access: https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/123456789/33149

Prevalence of Helicobacter is mostly unknown in laboratory animals in Thailand. The 221 mice feces/cecum from 8 universities, 2 pharmaceutical companies and 3 research institutions in Thailand were surveyed for the prevalence and distribution of Helicobacter species by using the Electrochemical DNA chip. Helicobacter were detected 23/46 samples in Specific Pathogen Free (SPF) and 168/175 in conventional condition. Prevalence of Helicobacter were 98%, 96%, 92% and 78% in South (n=40), Northeast (n=40), North (n=25) and Central area (n=116), respectively. Only Central area holds SPF facility resulting in Helicobacter prevalence that seems to be lower than other areas. Three species of Helicobacter were detected in feces/cecum samples by sequence analysis: H. rodentium (67.0%, 148 samples), Helicobacter sp. MIT 01-6451 (15.4%, 34 samples), and unidentified Helicobacter species (14.1%, 9 samples). The results suggested that H. rodentium is the most common species of Helicobacter in laboratory mice in Thailand. © 2014 Japanese Association for Laboratory Animal Science.