Mycobacterium aviumsubsp. paratuberculosis isolated from wild red deer (Cervus elaphus) in Northern Italy.

•Cervus elaphus population from Lombardy and Bolzano areas was analyzed by qPCR for paratuberculosis.•20.16% samples from the Lombardy and 18.63% from the Bolzano areas resulted PCR positive.•Cultural test was carried out on qPCR positive samples enabling to isolate 19 MAP field strains.•All MAP isolates resulted as type C by allele specific PCR.•Mini- and Micro-satellite loci analysis revealed the presence a unique genotype, INMV1.