From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2002-02-04 17:11:00 UTC
Subject: ADV: an MF statement
--
I enquired and just got a note back from the president of Marshall
Farms who replied, "We do test a cross section of the population on a
regular basis and have not had a positive test." for how they check
at their facility (and this would be a good thing to ask other
breeders, distributors, pet stores, etc. about by anyone who is
interested). Any speculative or political replies will be rejected;
quotes on such practises from the places themselves are okay unless
this conversation gets out of hand.
Like the vet, Dr. Ruth Heller (who knows her stuff and can discuss
this professional to professional) pointed out it can take only two
weeks after exposure for that exposure to show up in testing. That
means that if it turns out to not be a false positive (which has to
be determined FIRST) then there are multiple possible locations where
exposure may have occurred. No reason to run around panicking; let's
get actual FACTS first.
I do not know why there have been so many cases recently (about 5) of
people going after vets, breeders, and ferret-product manufacturers
BEFORE getting any real proof of culpability, but it is uncalled for
and harmful. Let's not panic, and instead wait for enough
information. We don't even know if there really is an exposure OR
infection in that kit, yet. When there are actual facts then those
can be presented, but a do-at-home test has a good chance of a false
result from multiple causes. NO test is 100% accurate (as any here
who have had a serious illness in their human family know for that,
too) and at-home tests are typically prone to more error.