From:
katharine@nettally.com
Date: 2003-10-31 00:20:50 UTC
Subject: addendum to SARS posts for FML and FHL
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <6985326.1067550914536.JavaMail.root@indium.smartgroups.com>
Someone on another group has pulled together all of the information to order melatonin implants, the implant device, and needles. One issue that has come up is the casing on the implant. It is my understanding that the casing does not dissolve.
Does the casing need to be removed surgically at some point? Do you need to remove the casing before the next implant? What exactly is the procedure for this?
Katharine
To: williamsb@comcast.net, Kiupel@dcpah.msu.edu, ferrethealth@smartgroups.com,
ferret-list@cunyvm.cuny.edu
From: sukie crandall <sukiec@optonline.net>
Cc: a.osterhaus@erasmusmc.nl
Message-id: <14E3E113-0B38-11D8-8D10-000A95CD182C@optonline.net>
Okay, virology is NOT something I know much about but I've read the
article in "Nature".
I am truly wondering if there may not be a different mustelid-specific
coronavirus (Epizooic Catarrheal Enteritis) confusing the second stage
of the experiment in relation to ferrets, especially given the liver
findings in those ferrets.
BTW, the article itself does NOT refer to ferrets as wild animals,
though Mary said she saw that in the abstract. I wonder who wrote the
abstract? I'm glad that error was not in the article itself. You'd
think that researchers would know that their test species has been
domesticated for over 2,500 years and mentioned in the writings of
people like Aristophanes and Pliny, so I suspect someone else did the
abstract for them.
Okay: If I am processing this properly what they did was they
performed 4 intratracheal innoculations of 10 to the 6th median tissue
culture infectous dose units and did that four times for each
individual. The tissue was obtained from a human who died of SARS.
Then they took swabs from the pharynx, nose, and rectum of the animals
directly infected, starting at Day 2 and ending at Day 10 for cats and
Day 14 for ferrets.
All of the animals had positive results from pharyngyl swabs. None had
positive results from rectal swabs. Two cats had positive nasal swabs
whereas the ferrets never had positive nasal swabs.
One of these ferrets died (but see note on the deaths to two later
ferrets because something else may have been going on, too). The
titers done from lungs of the ferrets were lower than those seen in
infected macaques and lesions were milder. The infection was even less
pronounced in the cats.
There was also some evidence of SCV in the gastrointestinal and
urinary tracts on necropsy.
The results of the swabs showed that the amount of virus increased
until Days 6 to 8, and then decreased. All of the animals who were
left alive had seroconverted by Day 28 and nothing infectious was found
in them at that point. Cats had virus-neutralizing titers of 40 and
ferrets had ones of 160.
Now the tricky part: there are experts at WHO and the CDC (quoted in
news articles) who say that the exposure that they did of
non-innoculated cats and ferrets just was not done with methodolgy
which lets anyone be sure that cats or ferrets can transmit the virus.
*****Two exposed ferrets died, BUT on necropsy they did NOT have SARS
like lung damage and only one of them had any coronavirus found in lung
tissue. (Lesions had been seen on the necropsied directly-infected
ferrets.) INSTEAD, they had hepatic lipidosis and emaciation. So,
were these ferrets not eating and run down badly? As we all know from
reading the article on confusion in pathology of ferrets in Dr. Bruce
William's AFIP site that may be a real concern here. Were they using
ferrets who were already ill or were refusing food? (I would LOVE to
know if these ferrets had diarrhea, and if the researchers have testing
abilities in their labs which can distinguish between the ECE
coronavirus and the SARS coronavirus, especially with recent reports of
people who are wondering if some Dutch pet ferrets have ECE.) Are they
aware that there is a mustelid-specific coronavirus which may be
present in ferrets in Holland and which is present in ferrets in North
America. have they made sure that they are not possibly dealing with
that instead? (See the extensive many years of work of Doctors Bruce
Williams of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology and Matti Kiupel
now of the Pathology Dept. of University of Michigan and previously of
Purdue.)*****
The researchers, who are at the Institute of Virology, Erasmus Medical
Center, in Rotterdam, The Netherlands are Doctors Martina, Haagmans,
Kuiken, Fouchier, Rimmelzwaan, Amerongen, Peiris, Lim, and Osterhaus
End of ferrethealth Digest
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