Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis and Crohn's Disease: An association requiring more research

Dear Sir,I wish to respond to Dr. Van Kruiningen's recent viewpoint article entitled, “Where are the weapons of mass destruction-the Mycobacterium paratuberculosis in Crohn's disease?” 1 By emphasizing the studies which do not find an association of Crohn's disease (CD) and Mycobacterium avium paratuberculosis (Map) and dismissing the positive studies he implies that this association is still controversial. At this point, two meta analyses have concluded that this association is established.2,3 The debate has shifted to whether Map is causative of CD or inconsequential in the disease.Van Kruiningen suggests that only two possibilities exist …