Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis: Infrequent Human Pathogen or Public Health Threat?
People with Crohn’s disease (CD) are seven-fold more likely to have in their gut tissues the bacterium that causes a digestive-tract disease in cattle called Johne’s disease. The role this bacterium may or may not play in causing CD is a top research priority. This report points out that the cause of Crohn’s disease is unknown, and the possible role of this bacterium, which could conceivably be passed up the food chain to people, has received too little attention from the research community.
This farm decided to take on Johne’s disease and reduce its grip on their herd . . . and it worked in a big way. Read this story about a successful Johne’s disease control program carried out with financial support from the Wisconsin Milk Marketing Board, the USDA-APHIS-VS, and the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
USDA NAHMS Dairy 2007 Johne's disease survey results have been released.
The USDA-NAHMS report includes results from NAHMS results from the Dairy 1996, 2002 and 2007 studies on Johne's disease and includes herd level prevalence results through use of environmental culturing. Overall, the study supports peoples' estimates that most herds have some level of infection with 2/3 herds having at least one positive environmental sample; results are also stratified based upon herd size.
