Mycobacterium paratuberculosis (MAP)

[SarahD]

I'm curious as to what peoples thoughts are on Mycobacterium paratuberculosis (MAP), which is associated with Johnes disease in cattle?

I've always wondered whether my Crohns could have been triggered by exposure to the MAP bacteria. About 2-3 weeks before developing my first Crohns symptoms I had been camping with some friends in a cow field. Ever since I first heard about MAP several years ago I wondered whether there may be a link between my Crohns and this camping trip. Anyway, to make my suspicions even stronger, I recently heard that one of the other girls who had been on that same camping trip has also been diagnosed with Crohns disease, though her diagnosis came several years after the camping trip. I'm not sure whether it's just a fluke, or whether there may actually be something in it. Some research into the MAP - Crohns relationship has been done, but with some studies showing a positive link and others being inconclusive.

 

[Bld]

I asked my GI about this when I had my last Colonoscopy but he said that it is very rare outside of certain communities and that my scope was typical Crohn's. I believe it is quite simple to test for though so might be worth asking at your next consultation.

 

[PsychoJane]

I haven't read a lot on the topic but I saw that at some point... I know they were stressing the fact that crohn disease is mostly spread in "milk-drinking" area. That link would therefore be logical. I don't know much about the conclusion from it... They often seem to say that you need some sort of bacteria/virus(not sure which) to "trigger" the disease when you have the genetic background... Could it be one of these? maybe. I'd have to read more about it.

 

[PsychoJane]

I believe it is quite simple to test for though so might be worth asking at your next consultation.

I think it's the opposite, it's apparently hard to test.

The next hurdle was the difficulty of consistently culturing the bug from Crohn's sufferers' intestines.[49] Although MAP has been independently isolated across three continents--cultured from Crohn's tissue in California, Texas, France, Australia, England, the Netherlands, and the Czech republic[50]--results are still relatively sparse and many labs have reported not being able to culture it at all.[51] In order to isolate a specific bug from the multitude that exist naturally in the intestine, one has to devise a decontamination technique that kills other bacteria without harming the target bacterium, in this case MAP. Without it's protective cell wall, however, cell wall deficient forms are almost impossible to culture because of the caustic processing techniques required to isolate them.[53]Even once isolated, MAP is very difficult to grow

Greger, Micheal (2001)

 

[SarahD]

Thanks Bld and PsycoJane, I have an appointment with my consultant in two weeks time so I'll ask see if I can discuss this with him then.

 

[Beach]

I recall in the research section there was an interesting article about MAP bacteria being effected by vitamin A and vitamin D.

"Vitamins A & D Inhibit the Growth of Mycobacteria"

http://www.crohnsforum.com/showthread.php?t=33666