Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) the cause of Johne's disease in ruminants and Crohn's disease in human beings escapes pasteurization temperature and liquid milk has been subject of intense research. India though is the highest milk producer also has largest population (403.8 million) of dairy animals in the world, however, status of MAP in un-pasteurized and pasteurized milk and milk products was not known. This pilot study was the first attempt to know presence of live cultivable MAP in branded pasteurized milk and milk products and un-pasteurized milk marketed in 3 major cities of North India for human consumption, using 3 sensitive diagnostic assays (culture, ELISA and PCR). Specific IS900 PCR was used to characterize MAP from positive cultures. Of the 43 samples screened by 3 tests, culture was most sensitive (58.1%) followed by PCR (23.2%) and ELISA (4.6%). In culture, 43.7, 72.2 and 55.5% un-pasteurized milk, pasteurized milk and milk products were positive. The 44.1, 34.8 and 20.9% were positive in culture of fat, sediment and both together, respectively and 12.1 and 87.8% cultures were multi (>10 colonies) and pauci-bacillary, respectively. Colonies first appeared on 45 DPI and continued to appear up to 120 DPI. PCR was used for screening of decontaminated pallets (Fat and sediment) of un-pasteurized and pasteurized milk and milk products, 6.2, 38.8 and 22.2% samples were detected positive, respectively. Specific IS900 PCR confirmed all the positive cultures as that of MAP. ELISA detected 12.5% lacto-antibodies in un-pasteurized raw milk samples only. Pasteurization improved the recovery of MAP in culture and PCR. Presence of MAP in the un-pasteurized milk indicated that livestock population was infected and may be cause of low productivity of the Indian livestock. In view of the increasing human population the dairy products are in high demand. High presence of MAP in the pasteurized milk and milk products are potential threat to human contamination with MAP in India.