Patent ID: 7731937

Claim:
A cell-mediated immunological diagnostic method for paratuberculosis characterized by comprising: collecting blood of a subject animal, thereby providing collected blood; adding (a) an anti-interleukin 10 (IL-10) antibody and (b) a stimulus which induces cell-mediated immunological reaction against Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis in the collected blood, to the collected blood, so as to induce said cell-mediated immunological reaction, wherein said stimulus added to the collected blood is a Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis antigen; subsequent to said adding, measuring an amount of produced interferon-γ (IFNγ) in the blood; subsequent to said measuring, comparing between amounts of the produced interferon-γ (IFNγ) measured in the subject animal and that in a non-infected control animal; and distinguishing the subject animal from a non-infected control animal in a case where a statistically significant increase in amounts of produced interferon-γ (IFNγ) is measured in the subject animal.