H. pylori is motile and usually possesses four to six unipolar-sheathed flagella, which may be an adaptation to survive in gastric juices[3,43]. Other studies have been conducted on the survival of microorganisms in other more complex foodstuffs. A nested PCR approach has been employed for the detection of the H. pylori glmM gene from seawater and sheep, goat and cow milks[71,130,141]. Furthermore, H. pylori strains isolated from foods showed genotypes of vacA alleles similar to those in isolates from human clinical samples, endorsing the hypothesis that foods can be the source of H. pylori transmission to humans[76,78-80]. Epidemiology of Helicobacter pylori infection in six Latin American countries (SWOG Trial S0701). Its presence also increases your risk of gastritis and stomach cancer. Adams BL, Bates TC, Oliver JD. Some fibrocystic breast change may be caused by sexually transmitted H. pylori during oral nipple contact: supporting literature and case report of resolution after gut H. pylori eradication treatment. It can infect the lining of the stomach and duodenum (the first part of the intestine). Furthermore, the municipal water supply seemed to be an important source of infection among Lima children from families of both low and high socioeconomic status because children from high-income families whose homes had municipal water were 12 times more likely to be infected than were those from high-income families whose water supplies came from community wells[97]. In another epidemiological survey conducted in Germany on 3347 children from cities and rural areas, 179 children (119 from cities and 60 from rural areas) were infected by H. pylori. Shahamat et al[118] used an autoradiographic method to detect the metabolic activity of H. pylori VBNC in water. Faecal-oral transmission has more important implications than oral-oral transmission because H. pylori may occur in food and water supplies subsequent to faecal contamination[26]. . Human infection by H. pylori is a great public health hazard because H. pylori colonizes the gastric mucosa of approximately half of the world’s population[9-12]. It has been estimated that H. pylori colonizes more than half of the world’s population, and contaminated water is mentioned as one of major causes[60,88-91]. Progress on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene: 2017 update and Sustainable Development Goal baselines. Queralt N, Araujo R. Analysis of the survival of H. pylori within a laboratory-based aquatic model system using molecular and classical techniques. Detection of mRNA by reverse transcription-PCR as an indicator of viability in Escherichia coli cells. In 2015, approximately 2.1 billion people did not manage water safely, and among them, 844 million did not even have basic drinking water services, spending more than 30 min per trip to collect water from external sources, and some of them still drank untreated water from surface water sources such as streams and lakes. Thomson MA, Storey P, Greer R, Cleghorn GJ. In vitro inhibition of Helicobacter pylori NCTC 11637 by organic acids and lactic acid bacteria. Canine-human transmission of Gastrospirillum hominis. Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is a corkscrew-shaped bacteria that was identified in 1982 as a principal cause of stomach ulcers and chronic gastritis, conditions which were formerly believed to be caused by stress and poor diet. In the last Joint Monitoring Report (JMP) of 2017, “Progress on Drinking Water, Sanitation and Hygiene” by WHO and UNICEF[87], the first global assessment of safe drinking water and sanitation services was reported. Cohen AE. Ng CG, Loke MF, Goh KL, Vadivelu J, Ho B. Biofilm formation enhances Helicobacter pylori survivability in vegetables. Fujimura et al[100] studied the presence of H. pylori in 4 Japanese rivers and in 224 children who lived near one river using the stool antigen test for H. pylori prevalence. H. pylori was isolated in 25%, 37%, 22%, 28% and 14% of cow, sheep, goat, buffalo and camel meat samples[70] and in 1.42% and 12.5% of hamburger and minced beef samples, respectively[76]. Dixon B. Helicobacter from seas? Conversely, these findings were not confirmed in the studies conducted by Jiang and Doyle[56], Turutoglu et al[74] and Bianchini et al[75], which failed to detect H. pylori in cow and sheep raw milk in the United States, Turkey and Italy, respectively, by PCR and bacteriological analysis. Dunn BE, Cohen H, Blaser MJ. It is very common, affecting about two thirds of the world's population. Ranjbar R, Khamesipour F, Jonaidi-Jafari N, Rahimi E. Helicobacter pylori in bottled mineral water: genotyping and antimicrobial resistance properties. Rivista dell’Associazione Italiana Veterinari Igienisti. Unidentified curved bacilli in the stomach of patients with gastritis and peptic ulceration. Quaglia NC, Normanno G, Dambrosio A, Celano GV, Parisi A, Firinu A, Buonavoglia C. Multiplex-touchdown PCR assay for the detection and genotyping of Helicobacter pylori from artificially contaminated sheep milk. As a library, NLM provides access to scientific literature. H. pylori cells were able to survive for short periods in chlorinated drinking water in the VBNC form, which would allow them to reach final consumption points and, at the same time, enable them to be undetectable by culture methods[115]. Comparison of agar based media for primary isolation of Helicobacter pylori. The dramatic increase in resistance to key antibiotics used in H. pylori. The bacterium 385 IARC MONOGRAPHS - 100B displays remarkable motility in viscous solutions, and the flagella play a central role in this motility (Hazell et al., 1986; Suerbaum et al., 1993). H. pylori may survive in water for a period before it is ingested as drinking water, accidentally during bathing, or through other pathways involving food. You may have any of the following: Dull or burning pain in your stomach or throat. The low concentration of chlorine in the water samples and the ability to form biofilms in water pipes[107,108] were the reasons that H. pylori was isolated[109]. The detection of H. pylori in food samples and water by means of conventional microbiological techniques generally employed for clinical specimens, which are unable to detect the VBNC, may yield false negative results and thus underestimate the presence of the bacterium in food; furthermore, the presence of H. pylori in VBNC state in food and water represents a potential microbiological risk for consumers, especially as a source of virulence factors[37,136,137]. Many authors have successfully used Wilkins-Chalgren anaerobe-agar or the broth developed by Poms et al[26] for the isolation of H. pylori in foods, both supplemented as described above[70,76,78-80]. Velázquez M, Feirtag JM. Helicobacter pylori. In contrast, H. pylori is not able to survive in yogurt[26] or pasteurized fruit juice[56] because its growth is hampered by the acidic pH and organic acids from lactic acid bacteria growth[62,63]. In addition, the ATP bioluminescence assay does not allow for distinguishing among ATP from different cell sources when applied to a complex system such as a foodstuff[141]. Some important clues have emerged from Italian research on the presence of bacteria in seawater. Hulten K, Han SW, Enroth H, Klein PD, Opekun AR, Gilman RH, Evans DG, Engstrand L, Graham DY, El-Zaatari FA. Bianchini V, Recordati C, Borella L, Gualdi V, Scanziani E, Selvatico E, Luini M. Helicobacteraceae in Bulk Tank Milk of Dairy Herds from Northern Italy. Jiang X, Doyle MP. These results provided evidence of the presence of H. pylori DNA in drinking water in Peru and were consistent with conclusions from a previous epidemiological study of the same population[101,102]. Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) is a type of bacteria that infects your stomach. Allaker RP, Young KA, Hardie JM, Domizio P, Meadows NJ. Quaglia NC, Dambrosio A, Normanno G, Parisi A, Firinu A, Lorusso V, Celano GV. Perez-Perez GI, Rothenbacher D, Brenner H. Epidemiology of Helicobacter pylori infection. Vaira D, D’Anastasio C, Holton J, Dowsett J, Londei M, Salmon P, Gandolfi L. Is Campylobacter pylori a zoonosis? Furthermore, Hemmatinezhad et al[78] analysed 550 samples of ready-to-eat foods, detecting H. pylori in 74% of samples; olive salad (36%), restaurant salad (30%), fruit salad (28%) and soup (22%) were the most commonly contaminated. Definition Helicobacter pylori ( H pylori) is a type of bacteria that infects the stomach. As with foodstuffs, the fastidious nature of the bacterium and the difficulties in isolating it from environmental sources do not provide unequivocal evidence about the role of water as a source of transmission of this microorganism. Untreated, long-term H. pylori infection can lead to stomach cancer (rarely). Furthermore, H. pylori has been linked to a variety of extra-gastric disorders, including coronary heart disease, dermatological disorders such as rosacea and idiopathic urticaria, autoimmune thyroid disease, thrombocytopenic purpura, and iron deficiency anaemia[8]. Rahimi E, Kheirabadi EK. Furthermore, in the studies of Papiez et al[85] and Dore et al[65], H. pylori prevalence was higher in shepherds with direct animal contact than in controls without contact with sheep. . Stevenson TH, Bauer N, Lucia LM, Acuff GR. H pylori infection is the most common cause of peptic ulcers. Department of Emergency and Organ Transplantation, Section of Veterinary Clinic and Animal Production, University of Bari “Aldo Moro”, Valenzano 70010, Italy. Papiez D, Konturek PC, Bielanski W, Plonka M, Dobrzanska M, Kaminska A, Szczyrk U, Bochenek A, Wierzchos E. Prevalence of Helicobacter pylori infection in Polish shepherds and their families. Verma N, Singh M. A disposable microbial based biosensor for quality control in milk. Helicobacter pylori and Systemic Disease. Temporal study of Helicobacter pylori presence in coastal freshwater, estuary and marine waters. A PubMed search was conducted using the following keywords and phrases: “Helicobacter pylori, Helicobacter pylori and food, Helicobacter pylori and milk, Helicobacter pylori and water, VBNC, survival of Helicobacter pylori”. Since 1997, when the transmission of H. pylori through water and foods was hypothesized for the first time, several studies have evaluated the survival and the presence of this microorganism in different foodstuffs (Tables (Tables11 and and22). An increase in survival occurs at low temperatures; in fact, high temperature causes loss of culturability[89,91,112-118]. Evidence supporting the role of foods and water in the transmission of Helicobacter pylori to humans. Contaminated water can transmit diseases such as diarrhoea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid and polio[87]. Leja M, Axon A, Brenner H. Epidemiology of Helicobacter pylori infection. This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. Helicobacter pylori in vegetables and salads: genotyping and antimicrobial resistance properties. These data suggest that this microorganism is most likely not able to grow in many types of food[47]. J Vet Med B Infect Dis Vet Public Health. In fact, although the H. pylori load contaminating milk under natural conditions is unknown (although it is presumably lower than that used in vitro), the infection dose for humans is low; thus, even a small number of H. pylori cells surviving in foods may represent a potential health hazard for consumers[53].