Environmental Sampling for the Detection of Mycobacterium Avium subspecies Paratuberculosis in Dairies in Texas

Abstract

Johne's disease (JD) is a chronic debilitating intestinal disease of ruminants, caused by the infectious agent Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP). JD is widely disseminated in dairy farms and known to cause considerable economic loss. Recently, interest in the detection of clinical and subclinical manifestations of the disease and MAP has created interest in developing cost efficient methods for its detection. The culture of soil samples contaminated with MAP (called environmental samples) offers an economic, easily performed, detection technique on dairy farms. The objective of this investigation was to conduct environmental testing on two dairies (E and W; n=>2500) in Texas known to have clinical cases of JD and previous isolations of MAP from fecal cultures.