Helicobacter hepaticus is a gram-negative bacterium that causes liver and colon cancer and intestinal diseases in mice. Transmission occurs via the fecal-oral route. H. hepaticus in mice has been useful as a model of liver cancer in humans and has helped advanced research in the innate immune response of the intestine. It is shown that H. hepaticus itself may be a pathogen of humans related with liver and biliary diseases and cancers. Of laboratory animals, only mice and rats have been shown to be hosts of this bacterium. Guinea pigs and rabbits are unaffected. Natural infection of H. hepaticus may interfere in research involving cancer or the gastrointestinal tract.

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