Deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)-DNA hybridization was used to determine the relationships of Mycobacterium paratuberculosis and Mycobacterium avium to 24 mycobacterial strains representing seven species. Our results indicate that M. paratuberculosis should be considered a member of the same genomic species as M. avium and the wood pigeon bacillus. Mycobacterium scrofulaceum, which has been considered a member of the M. avium-Mycobacterium intracellulare-M. scrofulaceum complex on the basis of phenotypic characteristics, shows little DNA similarity to M. avium, M. intracellulare, or M. paratuberculosis.
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Hurley et al. (1988) studied this question.