Abstract
Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) is an understudied pathogen worldwide with continuous implications in human autoimmune diseases (ADs). The awareness of MAP appears to be low in many places and its research is at infant stage in many countries. The lack of worldwide coverage of the MAP research landscape calls for urgent research attention and prioritization. This present study aimed to assess MAP global research productivity with an emphasis on its implications in ADs via bibliometric and growth analytic frameworks from authors, countries, institutions, international, disciplines and collaboration network perspectives. MAP primary articles were retrieved from the Scopus database and the Web of Science from 1911 to 2019 via title-specific algorithm. Analytic results of dataset yielded a total of 3889 articles from 581 journals and 20.65 average citations per documents. The annual growth rate of MAP research for the period was 6.31%. Based on a country’s productivity (articles (%), freq. of publication (%)), the USA (887 (22.81%), 26.72%), and Australia (236 (6.07%), 6.07%) ranked the top 2 countries but Egypt and Germany had the highest average growth rate (AGR, 170%) in the last 3 years. MAP studies are generally limited to Europe, Australia, Asia, South America and few nations in Africa. It had positive growth rate (30%–100%) in relation to type 1 diabetes mellitus and rheumatoid arthritis ADs; food science and technology, immunology, agriculture, pathology, and research and experimental medicine, wildlife, environments, virulence, disease resistance, meat and meat products, osteopontin, waste milk and slurry/sludge digestion subjects; but negative growth (−130% to −30%) in ulcerative colitis and Parkinson’s disease and no growth in multiple sclerosis, sarcoidosis, thyroid disorders, psoriasis, and lupus. The mapping revealed a gross lack of collaboration networking in terms of authorship, (intra- and inter-) nationally and institutionally with a generalized collaboration index of 1.82. In conclusion, inadequate resources-, knowledge- and scientific-networking hampered growth and awareness of MAP research globally. The study recommends further research to strengthen evidence of MAP’s epidemiologic prevalence in ADs and proffer practical solution(s) for drug development and point-of-care diagnostics amongst other extended themes.
Highlights
Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) is a known veterinary pathogen of ruminants such as goats, sheep, cattle and other wildlife [1]
A total of 6662 authors participated in MAP research in the period with a total of 18,666 author appearances
Growth related to MAP disease resistance research underscored the inclination towards selection of animal breeding stocks that are capable of high productivity in the event of MAP infections on-farm to minimize husbandry failures and economic losses
Summary
Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis (MAP) is a known veterinary pathogen of ruminants such as goats, sheep, cattle and other wildlife [1]. The research response towards this contagious microorganism is still not widespread in many countries due to lack of technical know-how and necessary diagnostic equipment despite its infectious and high-risk tendencies For this aforementioned reason, this present study aimed at assessing the global research interest and productivity in MAP via bibliometric analytic frameworks from authors, country, institution, international networking, conceptual frameworks and theme developmental perspectives. It undertakes growth analysis of MAP in the different areas such as scientific subject areas, institution participations, research topics and autoimmune diseases. These quantitative and qualitative approaches aimed at creating awareness and arouse interest in MAP research and serve as primer of information database for researchers on where to collaborate and seek appropriate resources for their research
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