Prevalence and molecular epidemiology of Johne’s disease in Egyptian cattle

•Mycobacterium avium subsp. paractuberculosis circulating among cattle in Egypt.•Culture and real-time PCR have slight agreement for detection of MAP in feces.•Egyptian MAP strain is closely related to German and Netherland strains.•The importation of cattle must be from Johne’s free countries. Johne’s disease is chronic enteric incurable disease in ruminant, is caused by Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP). The data about incidence and economic importance of the disease in Egypt are scare. The present study investigated the prevalence of Johne`s disease among cattle in some localities in Egypt. The results revealed that the infection was significantly higher in older animals than young animals (P =