title: A new compartmental model of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis infection dynamics in cattle.
abstract: Models of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP), a chronic infectious agent of cattle, are used to identify effective control programs. However, new biological findings show that adult infections occur and that infected animals can be separated into 2 paths: animals that will become high-shedding and, eventually, experience clinical disease (high-path); and animals that will shed only small quantities of MAP and will remain subclinical (low-path). Longitudinal data analysis found that high-path animals progress more quickly than previously believed. A standard model of MAP transmission in dairy herds was modified to include adult low-path infections and 2 infection pathways for infected calves. Analysis of this model showed that adult infection may play an important role in MAP dynamics on a dairy farm, and that the increased rate of progression for high-path animals influences both the prevalence and the persistence of MAP on a dairy farm. This new model will be able to determine the effectiveness of MAP control programs more accurately than previous models.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathobiology, University of Illinois College of Veterinary Medicine, Urbana, IL 61802, USA. Electronic address: rlsdvm@illinois.edu.
authors.forename: Rebecca L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: Smith
authors.affiliation: GD-Animal Health, Deventer, The Netherlands. Electronic address: yschukken@cornell.edu.
authors.forename: Ynte H
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Schukken
authors.affiliation: Department of Population Medicine and Diagnostic Sciences, Cornell University College of Veterinary Medicine, Ithaca, NY 14850, USA. Electronic address: ytg1@cornell.edu.
authors.forename: Yrjö T
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Gröhn
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D002418:Cattle Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D003612:Dairying; D008954:Models, Biological; D016927:Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis / Q000502:physiology*; D010283:Paratuberculosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D015995:Prevalence
keywords: Control; Disease modeling; Mycobacteria; Paratuberculosis; Persistence