Assessment of gut lymphocyte populations in Johne’s disease

Johne’s disease (JD) is a chronic gut disease which affects a large number of animals causing significant economic and animal welfare concerns. In order to design effective vaccines to prevent disease we must first understand the changes that occur within infected animals. We propose to study the cells that are associated with the inflammation that is seen in the gut. There are established links between JD in cattle and Crohn’s disease in humans. Both Crohn’s disease and JD have chronic inflammation in the gut and parallels can be drawn from studies in cattle to aid understanding of human disease.