From:
sukiecrandall@telocity.com
Date: 2002-07-20 17:36:15 UTC
Subject: RE: lymphosarcoma
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <24118252.1027186575577.JavaMail.root@scandium>
Chrissy, no one knows much on this topic. Some research of Susan Erdmann's done at MIT indicated that a form of viral infection can set the stage for developing lympho in ferrets but the actual virus isn't known. Finding such a triggering organism is very difficult and unless a researcher gets lucky it can take decades.
A number of things likely have viral triggers involved but the chances are decent that any given one will not be a virus that both ferrets and humans get. No one knows, and it's not worth worrying about. Heck, I've read of hypotheses that there may be a viral trigger for some adrenal neoplasias, and certainly ECE can be a precoursor to IBD -- by whatever mechanism. I figure that with some of these we won't know what they can lead to until or unless there comes a way to avoid any given disease by vaccine and then we can watch what has rate decreases... In some there will be silent infections that trigger things and finding the answers are a very long way off perhaps after my lifetime (I'm 52 later this year and reasonably healthy).
Not worth worrying about.