This means that American consumers are being exposed to live bacteria that are known to cause Inflammatory Bowel Disease (Johne’s Disease) in a wide range of animals, including dairy and beef cattle, and is suspected of being a cause of human Crohn’s Disease.

The most important points are

1. From May 2002 through April 2003, milk was purchased from stores in California, Minnesota and Wisconsin – three of the USA’s top 5 milk-producing states. (The other two are New York and Pennsylvania.)

2. Milk was tested for presence of viable MAP, using methodologies created in the 1990’s by British researchers, to study the presence of MAP in retail milk in the UK. It has been known since 1998 that United Kingdom dairy products are contaminated with live MAP.

3. Of 702 US samples tested, 2.8 percent contained viable MAP – that is, MAP bacteria that was alive, capable of multiplying and establishing infection, and capable of causing Inflammatory Bowel Disease in susceptible species.

4. Rate of positives was similar among states, but there was a seasonal effect. More positive samples were found during July, August and September.

This study confirms what we in the Paratuberculosis Awareness and Research Association have long believed: that American consumers are eating and drinking food that contains a live and dangerous bacterium, through the medium of MAP-contaminated dairy products.

On average 2.8% of milk cartons were found to be contaminated. Assuming that the average milk consumer drinks from a single carton of milk per day, this means that the average milk consumer is exposed to live paratuberculosis on average ten times a year. Consuming from 2 different milk cartons per day, 20 times a year, etc. This applies particularly to children, who are encouraged to consume milk, for the calcium and protein content. An average American child living in Minnesota, California or Wisconsin, if they consume from one milk carton per day, will have been exposed to live paratuberculosis up to 100 times by their tenth birthday.

The published results apply only to milk. Although research has shown that the food treatment methodologies used to manufacture other dairy products, such as cheese, chocolate, whey, etc, are incapable of destroying MAP, no US research has sought to determine the percentage of these retail dairy products also contaminated with live MAP. The majority of Wisconsin milk is used for cheese manufacture. Recent scientific results have shown that the methods to manufacture cheddar cheese do not kill paratuberculosis.

To this date, the food safety regulators in the United States, the Food & Drug Admninistration (FDA), have taken no action on the presence of live paratuberculosis in milk, dairy and beef products. The time has now come for the FDA to revise its policy of inaction, and to act immediately to protect American consumers from this dangerous bacterium.

If you believe that the US Government should put the interests of the American public before the interests of American Dairy and Beef Industries, and act to eradicate MAP from human food, please visit the PARA web site for steps you can take to help.

1. Original datasheet from American retail milk study
http://www.johnes.org/newsfiles/109216471862392.html

2. Articles about live paratuberculosis contamination in human food
http://www.crohns.org/map_food

3. Articles about the relationship between Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis and Crohn’s Disease.
http://www.crohns.org/articles
http://www.crohns.org/research
http://www.crohns.org/treatment

4. Government agencies with responsibility for regulating Food Safety.
http://www.crohns.org/governments

5. PARA’s work to get the US Congress to help address this problem.
http://www.crohns.org/congress

6. What you can do to help.
http://www.crohns.org/help

Since the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) hosted a workshop on possible infectious causes of Crohn’s Disease in 1998, attended by all of the PARA Board of Directors, including myself, PARA directors Cheryl Miller and Karen Meyer have worked tirelessly with both NIAID staff and with Crohn’s Disease researchers to obtain funding for those researchers who wish to investigate infectious causes of Crohn’s Disease.

The first spectacular success in this ongoing campaign to find a cure for Crohn’s Disease is the provision of US$1.8 million in funding for researchers who are investigating a infectious cause for Crohn’s Disease, with a strong emphasis on research into Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP).

Further information from the PARA web site

http://www.crohns.org/

Among the researchers who have received research funding in this round are two members of PARA’s Scientific Advisory Council, Dr. Saleh Naser and Dr. Norman Pace.

http://www.crohns.org/council/naser.htm
http://www.crohns.org/council/pace.htm

The NIH funding involves not only the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), but also involves the National Institute of Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), the National Institute of Health that has more traditionally been associated with Crohn’s Disease research.

Specifically, the NIDDK has funded another member of the PARA Scientific Advisory Council, Dr. Fouad El-Zaatari, to continue his long and detailed research program on the role of paratuberculosis in Crohn’s Disease. Dr. El-Zaatari has received funding to continue, among other research, his pioneering work on “In-Situ Hybridization”.

The latter is a technique whereby paratuberculosis bacteria which are present in gut tissue can be labelled and made detectable by attaching, for example, x-ray opaque metal atoms to them. This technique has potential for use as a clinical diagnostic technique, particularly because it can detect the cell-wall-deficient forms of MAP which are believed to be involved in the pathogenesis of Crohn’s Disease.

More details on Dr. El-Zaatari and his work from the following URLs

http://www.crohns.org/para/el-zaatari.htm
http://www.paratuberculosis.org/members/el-zaatari.htm

More information on In-Situ Hybridization from

http://www.paratuberculosis.org/proc6/abst5_2.htm
http://www.paratuberculosis.org/proc7/abst6_p7.htm

You can read more from the following links
NIAID: Crohn’s Disease: Is There a Microbial Etiology? Recommendations for a Research Agenda
NIAID: Recommendations for a Research Agenda
PARA’s efforts benefit Crohn’s sufferers – NIH allocates $1.8 million to study infectious cause of Crohn’s

Momentous developments are afoot!!

====================================================
London, 5th Dec 2001.
UK Government adopts comprehensive strategy for eliminating MAP from milk.

The UK government today adopted a comprehensive strategy to prevent human exposure to the bacterium Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP). MAP is believed by a growing number of scientists to be a cause of Crohn’s Disease, a lifelong, debiliating and incurable bowel disease suffered mainly by the young.

The Advisory Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food (ACMSF), which advises the UK Government Food Standards Agency, today approved a comprehensive program of measures aimed at eliminating MAP from retail milk, as purchased by consumers. Previous research commissioned by the ACMSF showed that live MAP could be cultured from approximately 2% of retail milk on sale in the United Kingdom.

The strategy adopted by the ACMSF shows that the UK Government is taking the issue of MAP and Crohn’s Disease extremely seriously. As the ACMSF says in its strategy document: “…. the Agency has put to one side the question of whether or not there is a link between MAP and Crohn’s Disease. The Agency believes that precautionary action to reduce human exposure to MAP should start now and should not be dependent on waiting for the link to be proven.”

Among the raft of measures approved by the ACMSF are:

– Increasing pasteurisation times from 15 seconds to 25 seconds. Although some dairies had voluntarily adopted this extended pasteurisation time in 1998, the more stringent conditions will now become standard government recommendation.

– Stricter quality monitoring of pasteurisation plants. Due to the potential for MAP to survive pasteurisation because of defective or improperly operated pasteurisation machinery, dairies and farms will be closely monitored to ensure that they are complying with regulations.

– Improvement of on-farm milking practices. Because a likely route for MAP to infect milk is faecal contamination, on-farm milking practices are to be closely studied to find the most effective method to prevent this contamination.

– Elimination of MAP infection from herds. The ACMSF is initiating a multi-pronged effort to eliminate MAP from herds of food animals, including improvement of existing diagnostics, a national survey to determine the prevalence of MAP infection in UK dairy herds, and development of a improved vaccination methods to protect animals from the infection.

– Alternative pasteurisation technologies. The ACMSF is coordinating several research projects which are assessing the effectiveness of several novel pasteurisation methods against MAP. The methods being studied include high-pressure homogenisation, double pasteurisation, microfiltration and bactofugation.

The timetable by which these measures will be implemented will be finalised in another ACMSF meeting, to be held in London in January
2002.

PARA greatly welcomes these developments, and commends the UK Government on its willingness to act in the best interests of its citizens and the best interests of the public health. However, there are some further measures which PARA would like to see the UK Government undertake.

o Labelling of extended pasteurisation. Since it is not possible for the UK Government to mandate 25 second pasteurisation for all UK milk, for reasons of European regulation, there will still be some 15 second pasteurised milk for sale in the UK. In order that Crohn’s Disease patients and their families be able to differentiate between 25 second and 15 second pasteurised milk, it is vital that the pasteurisation time be labelled on retail milk containers.

o Elimination of MAP from beef. Milk is not the only route for transmission of MAP to the human population. MAP can also be transmitted through beef from infected cows, and there is evidence to believe that the standard temperatures used for cooking of beef will not effectively kill the organism. Although the comprehensive strategy to deal with MAP in milk is a welcome start, it does not deal with the whole MAP problem.

Paratuberculosis Awareness & Research Association is non-profit organisation of Crohn’s Disease patients, their families and friends who are dedicated to the following goals

1. To promote awareness of the disease-causing potential of the bacterium Mycobacterium paratuberculosis in the national community of sufferers of Crohn’s Disease and Inflammatory Bowel Disease; in medical, veterinary and food research communities; in governmental agencies and in the public in general.

2. To promote clinical trials of therapy effective against MAP as treatment for Crohn’s Disease.

3. To promote mandated national testing programs to ensure that the milk/dairy, beef and other products on our grocery shelves are free of contamination with Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis.

For further information, please visit the PARA web site at

http://www.crohns.org/

If it wasn’t for Rep. Kucinich, it is quite possible that the NIAID would not have become involved, and thus the MAP/CD hypothesis would still have significant perception problems.

Rep. Kucinich is far more likely to succeed in advancing the cause of MAP/CD research if he has support from other Representatives in the house, and from Senators.

The only way that is going to happen is if other Congressmen and Senators get involved.

The only way that other Congressmen and Senators are going to get involved is if YOU ask them to! Yes, YOU!

If Steve Merkel had waited for someone else to the job for him, then no-one would have contacted Rep. Kucinich, and he would not now be fighting our corner in DC.

The same goes for each and every one of your Congressmen and Senators. If you don’t contact them, who will? How could get they possibly get involved if no-one asks them to?

Contact your elected representatives today. Phone them, email them, fax them, write them, whatever it takes. You can find contact details for your elected representatives, along with materials which you can send to them, at this URL

http://www.crohns.org/congress/

http://www.crohns.org/media/

Also on that page, you will find a U.K. government interim report on the MAP contamination of retail milk in the UK. The results are definitive and beyond all doubt: MAP bacteria are alive and growing in our retail milk.

MAP is in the milk supply, and it’s in the water supply. Antibiotics effective against MAP make Crohn’s Disease better. When will the US and other Governments wake up to the suffering of Crohn’s Disease, and how it could be prevented?

If you want to do something about this terrible situation, please join PARA and add your voice to the growing chorus calling for change.

1. Thursday 30th March 2000 – Newsnight (BBC1 TV, 10 minute report)
2. Friday 31st March 2000 – Farming Today (BBC Radio 4, 12 minute report)
3. Sunday 2nd April – CountryFile (BBC1 TV, 12 minute report)
4. Sunday 2nd April – On the Record (Interview with Agriculture Minister)
5. Monday 3rd April – Farming Today (BBC Radio 4)

I have numbers 2, 3, 4, and 5 on tape, and hope to digitize them and make them available on the net, for you all to see first hand.

However, I am about to go away for at least three weeks, so it will probably be the end of this month before you get to see/hear them.

As you will understand when you see/hear the programmes themselves, this issue is far from old hat. The only reason why it keeps cropping up in the news is because STILL, despite continued warnings to the Food Safety and Health Authorities, almost nothing has been done about MAP and Crohn’s Disease. The risk of exposure to MAP and the possible resulting development of Crohn’s Disease is still born by one group alone: the consumer.

Until we get research funds to deal with this complicated problem, I’m afraid that the controversy is going to continue. What we in PARA are trying to do is to educate everyone involved on the the complexities of this situation, so that at least we can discuss the issue in common terms, rather than the rampant prejudice and polarization that characterizes this subject.

If you are at all concerned about this issue, or wish to read more, please visit the PARA web page, at

http://www.crohns.org/

For those of you living in Britain, consider yourself lucky that you have a truly free press. A combination of the large financial muscle of the Dairy Industry “Got Milk” advertising campaigns and the threat of “Oprah’s Hamburger” style SLAPP suits ensure that those on the other side of the Atlantic are denied the opportunity to see the other side of this very important story.

The Medical Advisory Council has the following members: Dr Tom Borody, Dr. Leonid Heifets, Prof. John Hermon-Taylor, Dr. Ira Shafran and Dr. Walter Thayer. A short bio of each is available on our web site

http://www.crohns.org/council/medcouncil.htm

The Scientific Advisory Council has the following members: Dr. John Belisle, Dr. Tim Bull, Dr. Rod Chiodini, Dr. Mike Collins, Dr. Fouad El- Zaatari, Dr. Saleh Naser and Dr. Norm Pace. A short bio of each is available on our web site

http://www.crohns.org/council/scicouncil.htm

PARA is honoured to be supported by such an excellent and dedicated group of physicians and researchers, all of whom share our most important goal: To being an end to Crohn’s Disease.

To date, research in this field has been severely hampered by chronic lack of funding.

In order to address this funding shortfall, Paratuberculosis Awareness & Research Association (PARA) has assembled a proposal for the U.S. Government. The premise is simple: We want funding for research to develop better diagnostics and treatments for Crohn’s Disease!

We intend to raise awareness of this promising but neglected research avenue. In order for our efforts to succeed, we need as much support as possible.

We are asking you (yes, you!) to please join us in this most important endeavour. It is only by raising awareness of this issue on Capitol Hill that we can hope to achieve our goals.

Please (please, please, please) visit the following page, where you will find

o The contents of PARA’s submission to the U.S. Government.
o Instructions on how to contact the members of the U.S. Government committees responsible for funding allocation
o Instructions on how to contact your elected representatives, if you are a U.S. citizen.

http://www.crohns.org/congress/support.htm

Many of you reading this message have suffered for many years because of Crohn’s Disease. We ask you to please consider spending 30 minutes to join with us in helping to bring an end to Crohn’s Disease. It’s in your own best interest, and the interest of all of our relatives, friends and family.

Please feel free to post copies of this message on other Crohn’s Disease boards/forums/chats.

A mother on the USA, Karen Meyer, has a son who has Crohns disease. She is very concerned that her son may have contracted Crohns from consumption of food contaminated with the bacterium M paratuberculosis, and is concerned that many other people in the USA may contract Crohns disease, again possibly as a result of consumption of contaminated food.

She has attempted to find out what actions the US government is taking to ensure that food purchased and consumed by the public at large is indeed safe. She has been in touch with several government agencies, including the FDA, the US Department of Agriculture and the US Animal Health Association.

She is very unhappy about the replies she has received, and has determined to raise awareness of this issue among members of government, so that answers can be found to the following important questions

o Is M paratuberculosis is involved in causing Crohns disease?
o Are consumers infected with M paratuberculosis through the food chain?
o If M paratuberculosis is involved with Crohns disease, then how can sufferers of Crohns disease be medically treated to eliminate the infection?

Mrs Meyer wants you to join her in her awareness-raising campaign, and has formed the “Paratuberculosis Awareness and Research Association” (PARA) to organize this campaign.

PARA has a web page. The URL for this page is

http://www.crohns.org/

The page contains details of correspondance that Karen has had with the various agencies of the US government, and minutes of meetings of some those same agencies.

I encourage all sufferers of Crohns in the USA, and elsewhere, to visit the PARA web site.