Epidemiological assessment of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) in target herds

• Project start date: 1 May 2003
• Project status: Completed
• Discipline: Microbiology and food hygiene
• Author/s: Mr Jim Buckley, Cork County Council
• Collaborator/s: Dr John Egan, Department of Agriculture, Food & the Marine, Dublin, Prof Seamus Fanning, University College Dublin, Dr Michael Rowe, Queen’s University Belfast

Research objective

The primary objective of this research was to conduct a follow-up veterinary investigation of herds suspected to be infected with Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP), as identified in a previous Safefood project. The research aimed to achieve three main goals:

1. To validate the use of milk filters as a cost-effective and reliable method for screening dairy herds for the presence of MAP. This involved assessing whether milk filters can efficiently detect MAP contamination in dairy herds.
2. To identify critical risk factors associated with the spread of MAP infection both between and within dairy herds. This included testing various samples—such as milk filters, bulk tank milk, blood samples from individual animals, water sources, and rabbit faeces—to understand the pathways and sources of MAP infection.
3. To provide practical recommendations to farmers concerning herd health, management practices, hygiene, and environmental standards. The goal was to suggest effective control measures to prevent and manage MAP infection, thereby improving overall herd health and reducing the risk of infection.

Outputs

Research report

• Title: A Review of the Milk Supply Chain
• Publication date: 2 September 2005
• Findings:

  Data included in A Review of the Milk Supply Chain.

Other outputs

Peer reviewed articles

Brenda P. Murphy, Mary Murphy, James F. Buckley, Deirdre Gilroy, Michael T. Rowe, David McCleery, Seamus Fanning*. (2005). “In-line milk filter analysis: Escherichia Coli O157 surveillance of milk production holdings” International Journal of Hygiene and Environmental Health 208 (2005) 407–413.

F. J. Reen, E. F. Boyd, S. Porwollik, B. P. Murphy, D. Gilroy,S. Fanning, and M. McClelland* (2005). “Genomic Comparisons of Salmonella Enterica Serovar Dublin, Agona, and Typhimurium Strains recently Isolated from Milk Filters and Bovine Samples from Ireland, Using a Salmonella Microarray”. Applied And Environmental Microbiology, Mar. 2005, p. 1616–1625.

Brenda P. Murphy, Rebecca O’Mahony, James F. Buckley, Priscilla Shine, E. Fidelma Boyd, Deirdre Gilroy & Seamus Fanning, “Investigation of a global collection of nontyphoidal Salmonella of various serotypes cultured between1953 and 2004 for the presence of class1integrons” FEMS Microbiology Letters 266 (2007) 170–176.