Isolation and characterization of a novel helicobacter species, "Helicobacter macacae," from rhesus monkeys with and without chronic idiopathic colitis.

Chronic idiopathic colitis is a common clinical entity in young captive rhesus monkeys. Eight isolates, cultured from five monkeys in colony 1 with endemic diarrhea and three from colony 2 without diarrhea, were grown under microaerobic conditions on selective agar and were classified by full 16S rRNA sequence, biochemical, and phenotypic analysis as a novel helicobacter, "Helicobacter macacae" (proposed name). All eight strains of H. macacae had 99.5% identical 16S rRNA sequences.