Crohn’s disease is chronic enteritis of humans that affects the gastrointestinal tract, especially the terminal ileum, cecum and colon. The aetiology of this disease is still unknown but seems to be multifactorial. There are reports about the potential link between Crohn’s disease in humans and the causative agent of Johne’s disease in ruminants. Intestinal biopsies of 30 patients (12 male and 18 female; mean age, 34 years; range 4–77 years) with the confirmed diagnosis of Crohn’s disease and 30 patients diagnosed as non-inflammatory bowel disease (19 male and 11 female; mean age, 38 years; range 13–68 years) were studied by molecular, histopathological and histochemical methods.
Also, similar numbers of adult goats affected by Johne’s disease were studied, comparatively. DNA extractions of tissue specimens were subjected to PCR to amplify a 413-bp sequence of the IS900 gene. Using…
