The field of gastroenterology includes many examples of organisms whose pathogenicity has been questioned in the past. Older members of the American Society for Clinical Pathology might remember the skepticism with which the original publications by Warren 1 and Marshall 2 detailing the description of Helicobacter pylori associated with chronic active gastritis were greeted. It was not until Ko...

In a survey of five villages in the Eastern Highlands of Papua New Guinea, Serpulina pilosicoli was isolated from rectal swabs from 113 of 496 individuals (22.8%). Colonization rates ranged from 22.6-30.1% in four of the villages but was only 8.6% in the other village. In comparison colonization was demonstrated in only 5 of 54 indigenous people (9.3%) and none of 76 non-indigenous people livin...

Serpulina pilosicoli was isolated from 8 of 43 (19%) faecal specimens obtained from feral waterbirds sampled around a small lake at Perth Zoological Gardens, Western Australia, and from 3 of 7 (43%) samples of the lake water. The organism was only isolated from 1 of 204 (0.5%) samples from captive birds and animals in the zoological collection. Multilocus enzyme electrophoresis analysis of the ...

avian intestinal spirochaetosis (ais) is an intestinal infection caused by anaerobic spirochaetes of the genus brachyspira, including b. pilosocoli. the purpose of this study was isolation and identification of b. pilosocoli from laying hen flocks, located in mashhad suburb, khorasan razavi province, iran, and investigating the frequency of the infection. one hundred and eighty cloacal swab sam...

The presence of spirochetes in the human bowel has been recognized for over a century. Harland in 1967 described spirochetes on electron microscopy of rectal biopsies in a man with chronic diarrhea, and coined the term intestinal spirochetosis (IS) [1]. We report two cases of IS followed by review of literature. A 23-year-old male homosexual presented with diarrhea for 9 months but no blood. Th...

Anaerobic spirochaetes of the genus Brachyspira have long been known as important gut pathogens of pigs, but increasingly they are recognised as causing disease in birds and other animal species, including human beings. The genome sequence of the major swine pathogen Brachyspira hyodysenteriae was recently published, and this revealed extensive genome optimisation that leads to adaptation to th...

The aims of the current study were to collect intestinal spirochaetes (genus Brachyspira) from farmed and wild mallards (Anas platyrhynchos) and to identify and classify those isolates that phenotypically resembled Brachyspira hyodysenteriae, an enteric pathogen of pigs. The isolation rate of Brachyspira spp. was high from both farmed (93 %) and wild mallards (78 %). In wild mallards, it appear...

BACKGROUND Mucohaemorrhagic diarrhea caused by Brachyspira hyodysenteriae, swine dysentery, is a severe production limiting disease of swine. Recently, pigs in western Canada with clinical signs indistinguishable from swine dysentery were observed. Despite the presence of spirochetes on fecal smears, recognized Brachyspira spp. including B. hyodysenteriae could not be identified. A phylogenetic...

Yoshihiko Ogawa, M.D., Masatoshi Sato, M.D., Takaya Yamashita, Ryuichi Nakano, Ph.D, Satoshi Mochizuki, M.D., Kei Kasahara, M.D., Hisakazu Yano, M.D., and Keiichi Mikasa, M.D. Center for Infectious Diseases and Department of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, Nara Medical University, Nara, Japan; Department of Infectious Diseases, Department of Clinical Laboratory and Department of Surgery, ...