Some noteworthy extracts from an October 2016 paper by McNees et al:

“Once thought to be an autoimmune disease, Crohn’s disease is currently thought to result from the interactions between environmental and genetic factors and persisting antigens [51]”

“The most commonly quoted frequency for detection of MAP is approximately 7 times more from Crohn’s disease patients than those with ulcerative colitis or normal controls [62].”

“The presence of MAP DNA in peripheral blood mononuclear cells from normal control patients also confirmed that humans are often exposed to MAP and that exposure is widespread [61,64]…..The fact that MAP can be found in individuals without Crohn’s disease does not exclude it as the cause of the disease.”

“Proof of causation requires more than similarity and association, no matter how strong. However, there are multiple strong associations between MAP and Crohn’s disease.”

Readers may also be interested in the paper cited in footnote 114, concerning virally vectored vaccines. The safety trial design is similar to our own. The article can be accessed here:-

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4894645/…