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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, October 2005, p. 6033-6038, Vol. 71, No. 10
0099-2240/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.71.10.6033-6038.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Clustering of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis in Rabbits and the Environment: How Hot Is a Hot Spot?

Johanna Judge,1 Ilias Kyriazakis,1 Alastair Greig,1 David J. Allcroft,2 and Michael R. Hutchings1*

Animal Nutrition and Health Department, Scottish Agricultural College, West Mains Road, Edinburgh EH9 3JG, Scotland, United Kingdom,1 Biomathematics and Statistics Scotland, Edinburgh EH9 3JZ, Scotland, United Kingdom2

Received 25 February 2005/ Accepted 24 May 2005

Clustering of pathogens in the environment leads to hot spots of diseases at local, regional, national, and international levels. Scotland contains regional hot spots of Johne's disease (caused by Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis) in rabbits, and there is increasing evidence of a link between paratuberculosis infections in rabbits and cattle. The spatial and temporal dynamics of paratuberculosis in rabbits within a hot spot region were studied with the overall aim of determining environmental patterns of infection and thus the risk of interspecies transmission to livestock. The specific aims were to determine if prevalence of paratuberculosis in rabbits varies temporally between seasons and whether the heterogeneous spatial environmental distribution of M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis on a large scale (i.e., regional hot spots) is replicated at finer resolutions within a hot spot. The overall prevalence of M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis in rabbits was 39.7%; the temporal distribution of infection in rabbits followed a cyclical pattern, with a peak in spring of 55.4% and a low in summer of 19.4%. Spatially, M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis-infected rabbits and, thus, the risk of interspecies transmission were highly clustered in the environment. However, this is mostly due to the clustered distribution of rabbits. The patterns of M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis infection in rabbits are discussed in relation to the host's socioecology and risk to livestock.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Animal Health, Scottish Agricultural College, Bush Estate, Penicuik EH26 0PH, United Kingdom. Phone: 0131 535 3231. Fax: 0131 535 3121. E-mail: mike.hutchings{at}sac.ac.uk.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, October 2005, p. 6033-6038, Vol. 71, No. 10
0099-2240/05/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.71.10.6033-6038.2005
Copyright © 2005, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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