ABR Vol 4 [4] December 2013 1 | P age ©2013 Society of Education, India Advances in Bioresearch Adv. Biores., Vol4 (4) December 2013: 01-08 ©2013 Society of Education, India Print ISSN 0976- 4585; Online ISSN 2277-1573 Journal’s URL:http://www.soeagra.com/abr/abr.htm CODEN: ABRDC3 REVIEW ARTICLE Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis: an Emerging Animal Pathogen of Global Concern Deepak Kumar Verma* Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Natural and Computational Sciences University of Gondar, P.O. Box. 196, Gondar, Ethiopia ABSTRACT Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) is the causative agent of Johne’s disease (JD), which has some pathological similarities with Crohn’s Disease in human beings. The role of MAP in the causation of CD is under investigation since last 100 years. Both the disease (JD and CD) have been primarily and thoroughly investigated by western countries, where high prevalence was reported and has been rising since both are incurable. In India, limited information is available on the status on the presence of MAP infection in animal and humans. The live MAP bacilli have been recovered from raw and pasteurized milk and from human population in the country. These reports indicated that MAP infection has been established in animals in India and humans may get the MAP exposure through food chain or contaminated environment. Present review summarized the information on the status of MAP in animal and humans, economic losses and morbidity and mortality due to JD and CD at national and international level. Keywords: Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis, Johne’s disease, Paratuberculosis, Crohn’s disease, Zoonosis. Received 09/08/2013 Accepted 28/10/2013 ©2013 Society of Education, India INTRODUCTION Pathogens that are transmitted between environment, animals (domestic or wild) and humans present major challenges for the animal and human health. Among such pathogens, genus Mycobacterium is well represented by M. bovis, M. tuberculosis, M. avium ssp. avium, M. avium subsp . paratuberculosis etc that are shared by different species of animal and primates. These pathogens resist adverse environmental conditions and degradation [36]. Mycobacterium tuberculosis is the most successful human pathogen, infecting nearly one third of human population and currently number one cause of deaths due to single infectious agent in the world [87]. Recently, Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) has emerged as major and successful animal pathogen with significant zoonotic and public health concerns [23]. MAP is an established cause of Johne’s disease (JD) in domestic and wild animals and has also been associated with the Crohn’s disease in humans. The role of MAP in the etiology of Crohn’s disease (CD) has been debated for last nine decades. However, evidences suggesting association of MAP with human CD have provided time to time [29, 52, 71, 79]. While this debate on etiology of CD is going on, MAP is insidiously entering in the human food chain and has been isolated from retailed pasteurized milk supplies, milk and milk products and water [74, 99]. Association of MAP with CD, presence in immuno-compromised patients [63] posses serious threat to human health globally. This review summarized the prevalence of MAP in animals and its association with cases of CD in human beings at national and international levels with special reference to Indian sub-continent and its potential classification as zoonotic disease. THE ORGANISM (Mycobactrium avium subspecies paratuberculosis) MAP is a member of Mycobacterium avium complex of Mycobacteriaceae family. It is aerobic, short slender rod of 1-2 mm long and 0.5 mm wide, non-motile gram positive acid fast bacteria [18]. MAP is extremely fastidious and primary culture requires more than 8 weeks of incubation. Since MAP fail to synthesize soluble iron chelating compound (mycobactin), cultivation media must be supplemented with mycobactin [93]. MAP like other mycobacteria have thick waxy cell wall containing 60% lipid layer, which confers it properties of acid fastness, hydrophobicity [60], resistance to chemicals e.g. chlorine [99] and physical processes e.g. pasteurization [25]. MAP share some antigenic determinant and has similar characteristic A A B B R R