News Release

PARA AGAIN Urges USAHA to Take Action on MAP-Crohn's disease!

For the first time since 1997, PARA made a decision not to attend this year's United States Animal Health Association (USAHA) meetings, scheduled from October 17 to 24, 2002, in St. Louis, Missouri.  Contributing to PARA's decision not to attend these meetings is first and foremost the ineffectiveness of the National Johne's Working Group (NJWG) and Johne's Disease (JD) Committee's failure to deal with the zoonotic potential of Crohn's disease, the reason the NJWG was formed, a fact that PARA has had to remind them of for five long years.

While Crohn's patients have continued to suffer, it has been extremely frustrating  to witness the feeble, half-hearted and ineffectual attempts of controlling Johne's disease being made by the animal industry and regulatory agencies responsible for their monitoring.   As a result, we have come to the conclusion that our time and resources can and should be spent elsewhere.  Therefore, instead of attending these meetings in person, yet to preserve the record for future accountability issues, PARA sent its "FORMAL STATEMENT TO THE JOHNE'S DISEASE COMMITTEE, NATIONAL JOHNE'S WORKING GROUP AND UNITED STATES ANIMAL HEALTH ASSOCIATION"  on October 14, 2002, and via email to key members of these committees on October 16, 2002.

This formal statement updates the Johne's Disease Committee and National Johne's Working Group on developments in the past year and AGAIN reminds them of their responsibilities and failure to protect the public.  For detailed information about the NJWG, visit PARA's website at http://www.crohns.org/government/usaha/njwg.htm.  Also, PARA's reports of last meetings can be found at:

http://www.crohns.org/media/pr061200.htm

http://www.crohns.org/media/usaha2000rpt.htm

http://www.crohns.org/media/pr301000.htm

http://www.crohns.org/media/pr170900.htm

http://www.crohns.org/media/pr241199.htm

http://www.crohns.org/media/pr151098.htm

For further information contact

Paratuberculosis Awareness and Research Association, Inc.

1. To raise awareness of the zoonotic (disease-causing) potential of the bacterium, MAP, in the national community of sufferers of Crohn's disease, in medical, veterinary and food science research communities, in governmental agencies and in the public in general
2. To urge governmental agencies to directly address control and eventual eradication of MAP from the human environment, particularly from foods of animal origin
3. To urge governmental and medical research agencies to make funding available for research which will determine the role played by MAP in causing Crohn's disease