About the Authors

Ramon A. Juste

rjuste@neiker.net

Affiliation Departamento de Producción y Sanidad Animal, Instituto Vasco de Investigación y Desarrollo Agrario (NEIKER-Tecnalia), Derio, Bizkaia, Spain

Natalia Elguezabal

Affiliation Departamento de Producción y Sanidad Animal, Instituto Vasco de Investigación y Desarrollo Agrario (NEIKER-Tecnalia), Derio, Bizkaia, Spain

Joseba M. Garrido

Affiliation Departamento de Producción y Sanidad Animal, Instituto Vasco de Investigación y Desarrollo Agrario (NEIKER-Tecnalia), Derio, Bizkaia, Spain

Andres Pavon

Affiliation Fundacion INBIOMED, San Sebastian, Spain

Maria V. Geijo

Affiliation Departamento de Producción y Sanidad Animal, Instituto Vasco de Investigación y Desarrollo Agrario (NEIKER-Tecnalia), Derio, Bizkaia, Spain

Iker Sevilla

Affiliation Departamento de Producción y Sanidad Animal, Instituto Vasco de Investigación y Desarrollo Agrario (NEIKER-Tecnalia), Derio, Bizkaia, Spain

Jose-Luis Cabriada

Affiliation Servicio de Aparato Digestivo, Hospital de Galdakao, Galdakao, Spain

Angel Tejada

Affiliation Servicio de Aparato Digestivo, Clínica Quirón Donostia, San Sebastian, Spain

Francisco García-Campos

Affiliation Servicio de Aparato Digestivo, Hospital de Txagorritxu, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain

Roberto Casado

Affiliation Fundacion INBIOMED, San Sebastian, Spain

Itziar Ochotorena

Affiliation Fundacion INBIOMED, San Sebastian, Spain

Ander Izeta

Affiliation Fundacion INBIOMED, San Sebastian, Spain

Robert J. Greenstein

Affiliation Department of Surgery, VA Medical Center, Bronx, New York, United States of America

Competing Interests

RAJ. is President of the International Paratuberculosis Association. He has had expenses paid by a company for giving a conference, attending a meeting and making an expert report for registration of a vaccine against paratuberculosis. NEIKER has received funding for a study on the efficacy of paratuberculosis vaccination in cattle. RAJ, NEL, JGA, MVG and ISE are involved with a small company that is an spin-off of NEIKER in a project for the development of an improved vaccine for paratuberculosis. RJG has submitted patents on some of the hypotheses addressed in this and prior manuscripts. There are no potential conflicts of interest for the other authors.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: RG RJ JG IO. Performed the experiments: NE JG AP MG IS RC AI. Analyzed the data: RJ. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: NE AP MG JC AT FG RC AI. Wrote the paper: RG.