Physicians Link Crohn's Disease To Cow Bacteria

Scoop Report: One million people worldwide are suffering from the enteritis Morbus Crohn disease. Recent studies suggest the disease is transmitted by cattle.

People who suffer from the intestine disease Morbus Crohn are more often than not infected with a certain bacterium than people without the disease. Whether this agent, which causes paratuberculosis in cattle, evokes Morbus Crohn in humans, is controversial.

the physician Hans-Ulrich Kloer from the University Hospital Giessen says we must act on the assumption of the highest level of endangerment - meaning that the bacteria Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis (MAP) could by transferred via meat or milk products of infected cows passed onto humans and can result in Crohn's Disease.

Last September the scientist Saleh Naser and his colleagues from the US University of Central Florida reported, they had provided evidence that living MAP-microbes were found in the blood of half of 28 analysed Morbus Crohn patients.

The bacterium didn’t occur in the 15 subjects who showed no signs of enteritis.

In the magazine “The Lancet” researchers deduced that Morbus Crohn could be caused by MAP bacteria. This conclusion is supported by findings that suggest the animal disease paratuberculosis has similarities with the human disease. Because of the minimal number of participants researchers were not able to prove the theory.

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