“…Previously published studies have detected 10–10 3 MAP /50 ml milk by decontamination and culture (Ayele, Svastova, Roubal, Bartos, & Pavlik, ; Giese & Ahrens, ; Sweeney, Whitlock, & Rosenberger, ) and 10 2 –10 4 MAP /50 ml milk by qPCR (Slana et al., ) or IS 900 PCR (Stabel, Bradner, Robbe‐Austerman, & Beitz, ). The PMS‐phage assay and PMS‐culture have sufficient analytical sensitivity (10–10 2 pfu/ml and 10 2 –10 3 cfu/ml, respectively; O'Brien et al., ) to be able to detect these low numbers of MAP in cow's milk. However, it is documented that MAP shedding into milk can be intermittent (Fecteau & Whitlock, ), and the number of MAP shed can vary by stage of infection, with clinical animals shedding higher numbers of MAP in their milk than subclinical animals (Stabel et al., ; Sweeney et al., ).…”