Figure 1.

Immunopathological model of paratuberculosis. Continuous exposure of animals to MAP results in a dynamic balance where infection never gets established or is controlled by an efficient innate immune response in about half of the farm population, while in the other half it progresses to subclinical delimited focal or multifocal forms and, in a smaller fraction, to diffuse lymphocytic (cellular or Th1 type) or non-lymphocytic (humoral or Th2 type) forms that will result in open clinical disease.