Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis test and vaccine awaiting trial

Professor John Hermon-Taylor of Saint George's, University of London, is appealing for help to fund the final stages of development of a new Crohn's vaccine, which is now ready to proceed to human clinical trials.

Crohn's Disease
Crohn's disease is a severe inflammation of the intestine causing untold misery to almost 180,000 sufferers in the UK alone, and millions in the rest of the world. In many cases there are clear genetic links, but there is now good scientific evidence that the disease is caused by the bug
Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP).
Over a period of 8 years and at a cost of about £1.5 million, a research team at St George's Hospital Medical School (now St George's, University of London) led by Professor John Hermon-Taylor, has developed a state-of-the-art modern therapeutic vaccine to kill MAP and get rid of the distressing symptoms that blight the lives of so many sufferers and their families.

There is an absolute scientific requirement to develop new quantitative tests for MAP in humans, new immunological tests for MAP in humans, and tests for the specific immune responses of people to the vaccine. Together these tests will establish proof of concept that anti-MAP vaccination can make people with Crohn's disease better, and it does so by depleting or eradicating the MAP infection. This final essential piece of scientific research will require £550,000.
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UK Gov Funding has stalled for ostensibly political reasons (dairy industry, big pharma).
How devastating would it be for knowledge of pathogens rampant in our food chain to come out?
Vegans too affected as it can become water- even airborne!

A thorough paper:

Chamberlin, W. Borody, T.J. Campbell, J. 2011 'Primary treatment of Crohn's disease: combined antibiotics taking center stage' Expert Rev. Clinical Immunology. Vol 7(6), pp 751-760

Great discussions going on at Crohn'sforum.com video lecture series on YouTube part 1 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pYuf5rnnQo