Insights in the genome of mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis by Next Generation Sequencing approaches

Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) is the causative agent of paratuberculosis - or Johne's disease – that affects farmed and wild animals worldwide, causing negative economic consequences particularly relevant in the livestock sector of dairy cattle and beef (1). Recent estimates say that more than 50 % of the herds in Europe and North America are infected (3). In Italy, a study conducted in the Lombardy and Veneto regions reveals that about 70 % of dairy herds are infected (2). The disease shows high variability in the progression and symptoms that may be due to the genetic variability of the host, the pathogen, or a combination of the two. Understanding the mechanism responsible of this variability could be of paramount importance for the control of the disease (1, 3). Aim of this work was to study the genomic variability of MAP isolated from dairy cattle from different farms distributed in several Italian regions through the use of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) techniques. The preliminary results on 15 strains are presented.