From:
Mike Janke
Date: 2001-06-09 08:20:00 UTC
Subject: Re: What is ECE and ADV??
ECE, or epizootic catarrhal enteritis is a viral disease that affects
the GI tract of the ferret. It was first seen around 1993 on the East
Coast and has spread like wildfire across the country. It is
extremely contagious and ferrets exposed to the virus will usually
present with the first symptoms within 48-72 hours. There is no cure
or vaccine to prevent it, nor is there a test to detect it, but it's
very treatable and ferrets that are otherwise healthy survive it with
good, supportive care. While it is survivable, it's not a fun time as
it can take months of intensive care to help them through it. Baby
ferrets brought home from a pet store seem to be responsible for a
significant number of infections.
ADV, or Aleutian Disease Virus, has been around for at a long time.
I believe it was first reported in ferrets in the 60's. It's related
to the parvovirus in dogs. It's a terminal disease, but ferrets that
are ADV+ may be clinically normal and not die from it. There are a
couple tests for ADV, but there is no vaccine or cure. Supportive
care is the best that one can do for a ferret that has full-blown AD.
From what I have read, ADV is a little more difficult to contract
from an ADV+ positive ferret than ECE. With ECE, you need only go to
a pet store and cuddle one of the baby ferrets, then come home and
handle your own without first washing and changing clothes to spread
ECE among your ferrets.
Mike
--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., rebecca klein <jaxy25@y...> wrote:
> Never heard of these. The post that someone wrote
> about bringing a new ferret into an already
> ferret inhabited home and procedures for keeping
> contamination to a minimum concerned. Haven't
> heard of these before.