Human Para is excited to share the results of our landmark MAP/Crohn’s disease testing study which has been published in the journal Microorganisms.

Presence of Infection by Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis in the Blood of Patients with Crohn’s Disease and Control Subjects Shown by Multiple Laboratory Culture and Antibody Methods.

In this study, blood samples were collected from 61 participants with Crohn’s disease and 140 control samples without Crohn’s disease. (16 participants with ulcerative colitis or an immune condition were included as part of the control group.) The samples were blinded and sent to 6 different research laboratories for MAP detection. Each laboratory used their own method for detecting MAP, and results were then analyzed.

Viable MAP was detected in a significant number of study subjects across all groups. A link between MAP detection and Crohn’s disease was observed with MGIT culture and one of the antibody methods (Hsp65). Other detection methods showed no association between any of the groups tested. Nine subjects with positive Phage assay (8/9) or MAP culture (1/9) were again positive with the Phage assay one year later.

Definite identification of one viable isolate recovered from the blood of a single subject with IBS was confirmed as MAP by whole genome sequencing. Whole genome sequencing will be performed on 40 additional MAP culture isolates from this study and reported in the future as an addendum.

The results indicate a significant percentage of participants had MAP bacteremia. Three possible explanations for this finding are discussed in the article.

This study highlights viable MAP bacteremia is widespread in the study population including CD patients, those with other autoimmune conditions, and asymptomatic healthy subjects. As a minimum measure of best practice, the possibility that MAP is a zoonotic pathogen should prompt public health measures to better control JD and MAP spread into food and the environment by governments worldwide.

Thank you to all of the participants and their families, the researchers who volunteered their time for this study, and the donors who made funding this critical research a reality.