Road to Discovery: Genetic Mapping Lays Groundwork for Cattle
Disease Treatments ARS scientists at the Animal Disease Center's
Bacterial Diseases of Livestock Research Unit in Ames, Iowa, are
producing maps that could one day lead researchers to discover
preventative and therapeutic treatments for several important
cattle diseases. For example, Mycobacterium paratuberculosis,
the bacterium that causes Johne's disease, was sequenced in 2002
by Ames scientists under the direction of ARS microbiologist
Bannantine and Vivek Kapur, a researcher at the University of
Minnesota's Advanced Genetics Analysis Center. The sequencing
and discovery of several genes will help differentiate the
bacterium from other closely related bacterial species and could
help in the detection of the disease and development of a
vaccine. Johne's disease, an intestinal disorder characterized
by diarrhea and weight loss in infected cattle, is found in 7
percent of beef herds and 22 percent of dairy herds in the
United States. Currently, it