Archive for the ‘Government’ Category
Two thirds of US Dairy Herds infected with paratuberculosis.
In 2007, the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) National Animal Health Monitoring Service (NAHMS) surveyed US Dairy Herds on a nationwide basis.
They found that 68.1% of US Dairy Herds are infected with Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP), an obligate pathogen which causes Inflammatory Bowel Disease (Johne’s Disease) in cattle, sheep, goats and other food animals. Paratuberculosis is present in milk from infected animals, and is known to survive commercial pasteurization. Live MAP has been cultured from US retail milk supplies.
Mycobacterum avium subspecies paratuberculosis is suspected of causing the human Inflammatory Bowel Disease known as Crohn’s Disease, and there is mounting scientific and medical evidence that at least some proportion of Crohn’s Disease is caused by MAP. If MAP does cause Crohn’s Disease, then it is certain that the primary route of transmission of MAP to humans is through contaminated dairy and meat products.
Live paratuberculosis cultured from 2.8% of US retail milk containers.
Live Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) has been cultured from retail milk purchased from stores in California, Minnesota and Wisconsin.
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.
NIH funds US$1.8m worth of research into Paratuberculosis and other infectious causes of Crohn’s
I’d like to draw your attention to a major success in PARA’s drive to find a cure for Crohn’s Disease.
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).
UK Government adopts comprehensive strategy for eliminating MAP from milk.
I attended the UK Government meeting on MAP in milk last Wednesday, and wrote the following report.
====================================================
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.”
BBC TV Programs about paratuberculosis and Crohn’s Disease.
As promised a few months back, I’ve managed to digitize the the BBC TV programs about Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP), Crohn’s Disease and MAP contamination of milk and water. Apologies for the delay, there’s been quite a few technical hitches along the way. You can access them from
Please support PARA’s March To Congress.
As some of you may be aware, there is a wealth of evidence which suggests that some cases, and possibly a majority of cases, of Crohn’s Disease are caused by infection with Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis.
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!
The Independent: Health scare over milk
Source: The Independent (London), 24th January 2000.
URL:
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/UK/Health/2000-01/PAmilk240100.shtml
Health scare over milk
By Karen Edwards, PA News
24 January 2000
A bug found in pasteurised milk causes Crohn’s disease, a leading medical researcher said today.
Professor John Hermon-Taylor of St George’s Medical School in London says the bug, an organism known as MAP (Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis) is present in everyday milk.
The Guardian: Crohn’s disease ‘disaster’ blamed on pasteurised milk
Source: The Guardian, 25th January 2000.
http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,128597,00.html
Crohn’s disease ‘disaster’ blamed on pasteurised milk
What’s wrong with our food? – special report
Julia Hartley-Brewer
Tuesday January 25, 2000
Pasteurised milk infected with dangerous bacteria is responsible for a “public health disaster”, a leading medical specialist warned last night.
John Hermon-Taylor, head of the surgical department at St George’s medical school in Tooting, south London, claimed that a bacterium believed to cause Crohn’s disease, the inflammatory bowel disorder, was not killed by pasteurisation.
The Times: Crohn’s linked to bacteria in milk
Source: The London Times, 25th January 2000.
http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/2000/01/25/timnwsnws02030.html?999
Crohn’s linked to bacteria in milk
BY IAN MURRAY, MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT
CROHN’S disease is almost certainly caused by bacteria found in milk – even if pasteurised – and drinking water supplies, according to research by a world expert on the chronic illness. John Hermon-Taylor of St George’s Medical School in Tooting, South London, says that up to 55 per cent of dairy herds in Western Europe and America are infected with the bacteria, which can survive the pasteurisation process. Water supplies become infected as the droppings from herds seep into the soil, down into natural aquifers.
BBC News: Sceptics attack milk link to Crohn’s.
Source: BBC News, London, 24th January 2000.
URL: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_617000/617438.stm
Critics say they need more proof that a bug found in milk could be the cause of a devastating bowel condition.
A London-based scientist, Professor John Hermon-Taylor, says he is convinced that that Mycobacterium paratuberculosis (MAP) is the cause of many cases of Crohn’s Disease.
And traditional methods of making milk safe, such as pasteurisation, may not be able to protect the public, he adds.