Research on Mycobacterium avium during the period 1995 to 2009

Papers on Mycobacterium avium, published between 1995 and 2009 that are indexed in the databases Web of Science® (Thomson Reuters) and PubMed (U.S. National Library of Medicine) were analysed and 3377 papers, published by 11 197 authors from 2630 institution and 75 countries were compared. Mycobacterium avium is represented by four subspecies (M. avium subsp. avium, M. avium subsp. silvaticum, M. avium subsp. hominissuis, and M. avium subsp. paratuberculosis). Mycobacteria play an important role as human and animal pathogens and represent a potential risk to consumers as food and environmental pathogens and immunomodulators.