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Johnes = Crohn's?

M

Mike

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Joined
Feb 10, 2005
Messages
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Location
Montgomery, Al
Is there a link between
Johne's disease and Crohn's
disease in humans?
If there is a link between Johne's
disease (JD) and Crohn's disease
(CD), it hasn't been proven, says
Johne's disease expert Mike Collins,
DVM, PhD, University of Wisconsin.
What has been scientifically proven
about the relationship between these
two diseases, according to Collins, is:
n Mycobacterium avium subspecies
paratuberculosis (MAP) causes JD.
n MAP contaminates food of animalorigin;
primarily milk and meat.
n JD resembles Crohn's disease in pathology,
epidemiology and clinical signs.
n MAP is consistently found in
people with CD.
"The only remaining question is
whether MAP causes CD or whether
CD patients merely become infected
with MAP after they have their disease,"
Collins says.
A report issued in August by the
American Academy for Microbiology
highlighted that group's concern that
MAP may cause Crohn's disease. The
report states that "people with Crohn's
disease are seven-fold more likely to
have in their gut tissues the bacterium
that causes a digestive-tract disease in
cattle called Johne's Disease. The role
this bacterium may or may not play in
causing CD is a top research priority."
The report — Mycobacterium avium
paratuberculosis: Incidental Human
Pathogen or Public Health Threat? —
summarizes conclusions and recommendations
from a colloquium convened
by the American Academy of Microbiology
in June 2007. That conference
brought together experts in microbiology,
medicine, veterinary pathology,
epidemiology, infectious diseases
and food safety.
A full copy of the report can be
found at: http://www.asm.org/Academy/
index.asp?bid=60057.
Collins says this report doesn't come
down with a firm conclusion saying,
"yes" or "no," but, "it brings a lot of attention
to the issue." Bovine Veterinarian
Click to expand...
 
Back in my dairy classes at Cornell we were told that England had already made the connection.

That led me to think, have you ever met someone with Crohn's disease that has never drank raw milk? Ever since then I have asked everyone I have met with Crohn's, every one of them has had raw milk before.
 
I have Crohn's and drank raw milk for several years as a kid , but so did the rest of my siblings and they never developed Crohn's symptoms. I guess I'm the lucky one of the family :? :cry:
 
It's tough, I have lots of my customers asking where they can buy raw milk. There is a big push for it with the idea that pasturization de-natures the proteins and kills the good bacteria. It's tough because I haven't see this crohns-johnes link de-bunked.
 
All through hi school ( early 1960s ) I milked 4 cows and sold the raw milk - - -- we all drank it as well and so far I don't know of any ill effects - - - -that does not mean there is no connection but it might mean we were just lucky.

Even back that far many people would drive 40 miles and pay double to get "raw " milk and our eggs from range chickens - - - - we did not feed cows or chickens any medications and very little grain.

I doubt I would consider it again as I feel in this culture we would probably be jailed for selling raw milk.
 
Was Crohn's disease more prevalent before pasteurization than it is now? Any studies done on the number of cases today with pasteurization vs. before pasteurization? Just curious. Seems to me, there should have been a large number of patients with Crohn's disease a century ago vs today since almost everyone drank raw milk back then.

FYI: I'm not a dairy farmer.

Norm
 
Now farms are fewer and larger, large dairies buying in cattle from lots of other farms to fill their barns. It is a perfect environment for Johnes to spread more then it would have in the past, at least I believe so.
 
Ben H said:
Now farms are fewer and larger, large dairies buying in cattle from lots of other farms to fill their barns. It is a perfect environment for Johnes to spread more then it would have in the past, at least I believe so.
Click to expand...

I agree...but that milk is/was supposedly pasteurized. The people getting Crohn's supposedly drank unpasteurized milk (at least a majority since there is a supposed connection). That would have been from milk drank perhaps 20 years ago or more...prior to most of the large dairies coming into play, I would think. Pasteurization has been around for a long time. If Crohn's comes from unpasteurized milk, then I would think most of the cases should have come from "country" raised people who drank unpasteurized milk when they were young. The vast majority of "city" folks should/would have been drinking pasteurized milk. MY guess is that IF there is a connection, then current pasteurization techniques do NOT kill it. But then, I'm not convinced there is a connection.
 
You are on to something, not all pasturization will kill Johnes. I remember reading about that when I saw some of the on farm pastureization units that were designed for feeding milk to calves at the trade shows.
 

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