Crohn’s disease is a chronic inflammation of the intestine which ruins people’s lives and costs the NHS hundreds of millions of pounds. About 4-8000 people in Britain develop Crohn’s disease each year and the total number of individuals affected is somewhere in the range of 40-80,000. Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) is a bug which is a specific cause of chronic inflammation of the intestine in many animals. As a result of his earlier research, much of it funded by Action Research, Professor Hermon-Taylor believes that MAP could be transmitted from our domestic livestock to cause chronic inflammation of the Crohn’s disease type in humans who have a particular susceptibility. This further research will take the first and critically important step in the development of an entirely new MAP vaccine in order to treat people with active Crohn’s disease. The aim is to bring about relief and the return to health for thousands of people.