crohnscanada.myfastforum.org

david.crichton · Joined: 02 May 2008 Posts: 83

How many families have dogs? Just food for thought:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez

1: J Vet Intern Med. 2008 Jul 11. [Epub ahead of print]Links

Detection of Mycobacterium avium Subspecies Paratuberculosis-Specific DNA by PCR in Intestinal Biopsies of Dogs.

Glanemann B, Schönenbrücher H, Bridger N, Abdulmawjood A, Neiger R, Bülte M.

Clinic for Small Animals, Internal Medicine, Justus-Liebig-University of Giessen, Giessen, Germany.

Background: Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) is the cause of paratuberculosis. MAP infections have not been reliably detected in dogs, but a reemerging debate about the link between MAP and Crohn's disease has renewed interest about the occurrence of MAP in pets. Hypothesis: This study was undertaken to examine canine intestinal biopsies for the presence of MAP-specific DNA. Animals: Forty-two dogs with chronic vomiting, diarrhea, or both; and 14 dogs with no gastrointestinal disease. Methods: All dogs with signs of gastrointestinal disease had a standard work-up for chronic gastrointestinal disease. Endoscopically obtained intestinal biopsies were submitted for histopathologic and molecular investigations. Biopsies were screened for MAP-specific DNA by 3 polymerase chain reaction (PCR) methods (nested, seminested, and triplex real-time PCR). Samples from control dogs were obtained during necropsy. Results: Histopathology of the biopsies was indicative of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) in 17 and neoplasia in 6 dogs. Six dogs showing nonspecific changes responded to diet and were classified as having food-responsive enteropathy. In 13 dogs a final diagnosis was not established. MAP-specific DNA was detected and confirmed by sequencing in 8 dogs (19%). These dogs were diagnosed with food-responsive enteropathy (n = 3), IBD (n = 2), and open diagnosis (n = 3). MAP-specific DNA was not detected in dogs with no gastrointestinal disease. Conclusions and clinical importance: MAP-specific DNA was detected in approximately one fifth of dogs with chronic gastrointestinal disease and might play a role as a pathogenic agent. Apart from animal welfare, the zoonotic aspect warrants further studies addressing the viability of MAP organism in canine intestinal biopsies by culture.

PMID: 18638019 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

david.crichton · Joined: 02 May 2008 Posts: 83

I was just thinking. Aside from the highly speculative title of this post and its implication that family dogs may be a mode of transmission of MAP to humans, something else comes to mind: why, if when a paper comes out showing that MAP likely causes a chronic inflammatory intestinal disease in dogs the response of an individual is probably something along the lines of "yeah, sure, why not; it causes the same thing in other animals", do we (or perhaps I should says those in the research and medical communities) not respond similarly when papers come out about MAP's association with humans with inflammatory bowel diseases? Skepticism and the scientific method is good, but almost completely ignoring the association and issue seems very irrational.

"Why should we be all that different [from dogs]" - Professor John Hermon-Taylor

admin · Site Admin Joined: 06 Jan 2008 Posts: 60

Hi
Well actually when my family stopped eating beef and pork when I first found out about Map, my dog wasn't given anymore beef or pork either. Prior to this time, my dog had trouble with diaarhea, after I stopped giving her beef she didn't have anymore problems with it.

By the way my husband has a very serious ulcer in the intestinal tract, that the docs couldn't get under control. They said, there wasn't anything left to do to cure it. At that time there wasn't the selection of meds they have today. Anyways after about 4 months of being off beef, milk and pork, the colonoscopy came back clear. The docs couldn't understand at that time what had happened to the ulcer. Obviously not being exposed to as much Map, the ulcer healed.

What do you think?
Diane F

david.crichton · Joined: 02 May 2008 Posts: 83

Sounds like he was continually being challenged with repeated exposures to MAP. Which actually makes me think about what if MAP doesn't cause IBDs: could it not be making them worse? I would tend to think that it would be making them significantly worse, so causative or not, get it out of the food chain. When you think about it from a simple perspective; we get fed, on a regular basis, products that contain a bacterium that is known to cause chronic inflammatory intestinal diseases in other animals including sub-human primates, but we don't fight to change this. Health Canada needs to push CFIA to test our foods.