Background: Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP), the
causative agent of Johne's disease (JD) persistently infects and survives within the
host macrophages. While it is established that substantial genotypic variation exists
among MAP, evidence for the correlates that associate specific MAP genotypes with
clinical or sub-clinical ... read moredisease phenotypes is presently unknown. Thus we studied
strain differences in intracellular MAP survival and host responses in a bovine
monocyte derived macrophage (MDM) system.