REVIEW ARTICLE
An excellent review on MAP in milk and pasteurization was published 11-June-2019 in International Journal of Dairy Technology. The article is titled: Are we closer to understanding why viable cells of Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis are still being reported in pasteurised milk? The author is W Michael A Mullan, UK researcher.
Abstract: Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) continues to be associated with Crohn’s disease. Following work in the 1990s that suggested that statutory pasteurisation of milk (72 °C, 15 s) was insufficient to destroy MAP, the UK Dairy Industry increased the holding time to 25 s. Since then, some plants have increased the lethality of pasteurisation further with a number using 78 °C for 27 s. Despite the increase in lethality, a recent survey of pasteurised milk in England found that 10.3% of pasteurised milk samples tested positive for viable MAP. This article discusses the significance of MAP and why viable MAP might be found in pasteurised milk.
This 13 page review nicely summarizes the state of understanding on MAP and pasteurization providing 7 tables and 66 references. It concludes with 8 possible explanations as to why MAP continues to be found live in retail HTST pasteurized milk. Normally, this is not an Open Access publication. As indicated on the Wiley Online Library site, the article can be purchased for $7 for 24 hour access, $16.50 for read-only access, or $42 for the full text and PDF download.
UPDATE: The publisher has agreed to make the article freely available, i.e. open access, for one month from today, June 18! Thank you Wiley Online!
Note: Please excuse the use of both the British and American spellings of pasteurization / pasteurization. Just trying to be fair 🙂