We characterized 38 Helicobacter isolates, including 22 from gastric biopsy samples obtained from 14 rhesus monkeys and single isolates from 16 monkeys in a different colony. Biochemical profiles of these isolates were nearly identical to that of Helicobacter pylori ATCC 43504. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis indicated that each infected monkey harbored one to four strains. The 17 RFLP types found among these 22 isolates differed from all seven RFLPs found among the other 16 isolates. Thus, monkeys within a given colony are more likely to be infected by Helicobacter isolates with the same or a similar RFLP than are monkeys from different colonies. A 16S rRNA gene was amplified by PCR and cloned from the Helicobacter isolate from rhesus monkey 85D08. Ribotyping with this probe demonstrated less diversity among isolates from rhesus monkeys than was reported among isolates of H. pylori from humans, as did RFLP analysis of a PCR fragment of the ureA-ureB gene cluster. The DNA sequence of the cloned 16S rRNA gene was determined and compared with sequences reported for H. pylori and other Helicobacter species. Our analysis of 127 nucleotides (corresponding with residues 1240 to 1366 of the Escherichia coli 16S rRNA gene) indicated that the Helicobacter isolate from monkey 85D08 was 99.2 to 100% homologous to isolates of H. pylori from humans but only 83.5 to 96.9% homologous with other Helicobacter species in this region of the 16S rRNA gene. These data provide strong support for the presumptive identification of these isolates as H. pylori.