From:
sukiec@optonline.com
Date: 2003-04-22 21:58:34 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] RE: Black nosed ferret..
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <28203043.1051048714605.JavaMail.root@scandium>
Silvers would not be a neural crest disorder I don't think, and ferrets with clean bibs and clean mitts (no spotting) also seem to be something else. Actually, we've run into great health in the gray ones with clean bibs and clean mitts. You can. though, have a neural crest disoder and hide the mutation under something very light (like panda genetics hidden under albino).
I've bluntly heard from a geneticist and some vets that they really wish that breeders who want to concentrate on coloration would just avoid pigment deprivation types.
The reason that neural crest disorders are so spooky is because they are mutations that affect one category of the early fetal cells which later differentiate into many types of cells. This means that multiple systems can wind up with negative effects.
The genetic expression is variable, so it also is not possible to say that just because a generation or three didn't have serious consequences that a later one won't have individuals who will suffer badly.
In relation to neural crest disorders and health results I have wondered for a while if there are increased problems with fetal and kit survival documented. There are cardiac neural crest disorders in which mutations cause aortic overlay and "holes" in the heart. They usually result in fetal death, but I don't know if anyone has considered them in ferrets.
Waardensberg (sp?) and KIT are just two forms of neural crest disorders so although these fit the patterns seen in ferrets there may be yet more of these very ancient mutations. Common neural crest disorders are seen throughout many families in Mammalia and in some herps as well.