Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis

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Picture

Title

Caption

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Stained section of ileum

Acid-fast stain of M. avium ss paratuberculosis in a cross-section of ileum from a clinically infected sheep.

Judith R. Stabel/USDA-ARS-National Animal Disease Center

Identity

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Preferred Scientific Name

Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis

Other Scientific Names

Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis
Mycobacterium chronicae pseudotuberculosae bovis

International Common Names

English: Mycobacterium paratuberculosis

Taxonomic Tree

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Domain: Bacteria
Phylum: Actinobacteria [phylum]
Class: Actinobacteria
Subclass: Actinobacteridae
Order: Actinomycetales
Suborder: Corynebacterineae
Family: Mycobacteriaceae
Genus: Mycobacterium
Species: Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis

Diseases Table

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paratuberculosis

Distribution Table

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The distribution in this summary table is based on all the information available. When several references are cited, they may give conflicting information on the status. Further details may be available for individual references in the Distribution Table Details section which can be selected by going to Generate Report.

Last updated: 10 Jan 2020

Continent/Country/Region	Distribution	Reference	Notes
Africa
Algeria	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Botswana	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Central African Republic	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Côte d'Ivoire	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Djibouti	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Egypt	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Eritrea	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Eswatini	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Ethiopia	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Ghana	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Guinea	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Kenya	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)	CAB Abstracts Data Mining
Libya	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Madagascar	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Mauritius	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Morocco	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
São Tomé and Príncipe	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Seychelles	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Sudan	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Togo	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Uganda	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Asia
Bahrain	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Bhutan	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Brunei	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Georgia	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Indonesia	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Israel	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Japan	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Kazakhstan	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Kuwait	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Malaysia	Present	CABI (Undated)	Present based on regional distribution.
-Peninsular Malaysia	Present, Serological evidence and/or isolation of the agent	OIE Handistatus (2005)
-Sabah	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
-Sarawak	Present, Serological evidence and/or isolation of the agent	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Myanmar	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
North Korea	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Philippines	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Qatar	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Saudi Arabia	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)	CAB Abstracts Data Mining
Singapore	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
South Korea	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Sri Lanka	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Syria	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Taiwan	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Thailand	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Turkmenistan	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
United Arab Emirates	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Uzbekistan	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Yemen	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)	CAB Abstracts Data Mining
Europe
Andorra	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)	CAB Abstracts Data Mining
Belarus	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Belgium	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Bosnia and Herzegovina	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Cyprus	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Czechia	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Denmark	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Estonia	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Finland	Present, Serological evidence and/or isolation of the agent	OIE Handistatus (2005)
France	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Germany	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Greece	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Iceland	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Ireland	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Isle of Man	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Jersey	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)	CAB Abstracts Data Mining
Liechtenstein	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Lithuania	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Luxembourg	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Malta	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Moldova	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Netherlands	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
North Macedonia	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Norway	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Poland	Present, Serological evidence and/or isolation of the agent	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Portugal	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Russia	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Serbia and Montenegro	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Slovakia	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Slovenia	Present, Serological evidence and/or isolation of the agent	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Spain	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Switzerland	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
United Kingdom	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
-Northern Ireland	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
North America
Barbados	Present, Serological evidence and/or isolation of the agent	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Belize	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Bermuda	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
British Virgin Islands	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Canada	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Cayman Islands	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Cuba	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Curaçao	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Dominica	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Dominican Republic	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
El Salvador	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Guadeloupe	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Guatemala	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Haiti	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Honduras	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Martinique	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Mexico	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Saint Kitts and Nevis	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Saint Vincent and the Grenadines	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Trinidad and Tobago	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
United States
-California	Present	CABI Data Mining (2001)
Oceania
New Caledonia	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
New Zealand	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Samoa	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Vanuatu	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
South America
Argentina	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Chile	Present	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Guyana	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)
Paraguay	Absent, No presence record(s)	OIE Handistatus (2005)

Pathogen Characteristics

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Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis causes paratuberculosis (Johne's disease) in cattle and other ruminants.

M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis is a small (0.5 µm x 1.5 µm), facultative, acid-fast bacterium. The bacteria grow in clumps due to the complex cell wall formed by peptidoglycolipids (Merkal et al., 1973; Brennan and Nikaido, 1995). On agar medium, M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis grows as small, opaque colonies with a mixture of smooth and rough morphologies. Primary isolation and propagation of M. avium subsp. paratuberculosisin vitro requires mycobactin, an iron-chelating agent produced by most species of mycobacteria. Although M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis is capable of scavenging iron in vivo, it is dependent upon the addition of exogenous mycobactin or other iron sources to synthetic medium in order to grow in vitro (Lambrecht and Collins, 1992). Primary culture of M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis from tissue or faecal samples takes 12-16 weeks (longer for MAP-S strains) on agar medium such as Herrold's egg yolk or Lowenstein-Jensen medium, although recovery rates are shorter for heavily infected tissues. Primary isolation of M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis using liquid medium formulations has improved the rates of recovery (Shin et al., 2007; Whittington et al., 2013; Whittington, 2020). Biochemical characteristics of M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis may vary between strains, although there is evidence to suggest that the neutral red test may be used to determine virulence of M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis strains, and that catalase activity may be useful to discriminate between M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis and other species of mycobacteria (Merkal and Thurston, 1966; Thorel et al., 1990).

Disease(s) associated with this pathogen is/are on the list of diseases notifiable to the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE). The distribution section contains data from OIE's Handistatus database on disease occurrence. For further information from OIE, see the website: www.oie.int.

Host Animals

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Animal name	Context	Life stage	System
Bison bonasus	Domesticated host; Wild host
Bos indicus (zebu)	Domesticated host; Experimental settings; Wild host
Bos taurus (cattle)	Domesticated host
Bubalus bubalis (Asian water buffalo)	Domesticated host
Camelus bactrianus (Bactrian camel)	Domesticated host
Camelus dromedarius (dromedary camel)	Domesticated host
Capra hircus (goats)	Domesticated host; Wild host
Cervidae	Domesticated host; Wild host
Cervus elaphus (red deer)	Domesticated host; Wild host
Equus caballus (horses)	Domesticated host
Gallus gallus domesticus (chickens)	Domesticated host; Experimental settings
Lama glama (llamas)	Domesticated host
Lama pacos (alpacas)	Domesticated host
Lepus europaeus (European hare)	Wild host
Oryctolagus cuniculus (rabbits)	Domesticated host; Experimental settings; Wild host
Ovis aries (sheep)	Domesticated host; Wild host
Rangifer tarandus (reindeer)	Domesticated host
Ruminantia	Domesticated host; Wild host
Sus scrofa (pigs)	Domesticated host; Experimental settings

References

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Brennan PJ, Nikaido H, 1995. The envelope of mycobacteria. Ann. Rev. Biochem., 64:29-63

Lambrecht RS, Collins MT, 1992. Mycobacterium paratuberculosis. Factors that influence mycobactin dependence. Diagn. Microbiol. Infect. Dis., 15(3):239-246

Merkal RS, Rhoades KR, Gallagher JE, Ritchie AE, 1973. Scanning electron microscopy of mycobacteria. Ann. Rev. Resp. Dis., 108:382-387

Merkal RS, Thurston JR, 1966. Comparison of Mycobacterium paratuberculosis and other mycobacteria, using standard cytochemical tests. Am. J. Vet. Res., 27(117):519-521

OIE Handistatus, 2002. World Animal Health Publication and Handistatus II (dataset for 2001). Paris, France: Office International des Epizooties

OIE Handistatus, 2003. World Animal Health Publication and Handistatus II (dataset for 2002). Paris, France: Office International des Epizooties

OIE Handistatus, 2004. World Animal Health Publication and Handistatus II (data set for 2003). Paris, France: Office International des Epizooties

OIE Handistatus, 2005. World Animal Health Publication and Handistatus II (data set for 2004). Paris, France: Office International des Epizooties

Shin, S. J., Han, J. H., Manning, E. J. B., Collins, M. T., 2007. Rapid and reliable method for quantification of Mycobacterium paratuberculosis by use of the BACTEC MGIT 960 system. Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 45(6), 1941-1948. doi: 10.1128/JCM.02616-06

Thorel, M. F., Krichevsky, M., Lévy-Frébault, V. V., 1990. Numerical taxonomy of mycobactin-dependent mycobacteria, emended description of Mycobacterium avium, description of Mycobacterium avium subsp. avium subsp. nov., Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis subsp. nov., and Mycobacterium avium subsp. silvaticum subsp. nov. International Journal of Systematic Bacteriology, 40(3), 254-260.

Whittington, R. J., Whittington, A. M., Waldron, A., Begg, D. J., Silva, K. de, Purdie, A. C., Plain, K. M., 2013. Development and validation of a liquid medium (M7H9C) for routine culture of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis to replace modified bactec 12B medium. Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 51(12), 3993-4000. doi: 10.1128/JCM.01373-13

Whittington, R., 2020. Cultivation of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis. In: Paratuberculosis: organism, disease, control, (Ed.2) [ed. by Behr, M. A., Stevenson, K., Kapur, V.]. Wallingford, UK: CABI. 266-304. doi: 10.1079/9781789243413.0266

Distribution References

CABI Data Mining, 2001. CAB Abstracts Data Mining.,

CABI, Undated. CABI Compendium: Status inferred from regional distribution. Wallingford, UK: CABI

OIE Handistatus, 2005. World Animal Health Publication and Handistatus II (dataset for 2004)., Paris, France: Office International des Epizooties.

Distribution Maps

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Invasive Species Compendium

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Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis

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