From:
williamsdvm@comcast.net
Date: 2003-10-31 14:21:13 UTC
Subject: RE: SARS and ferrets
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <7630912.1067610073238.JavaMail.root@indium.smartgroups.com>
Author wrote:
> Did anyone see the article on CNN's website http://www.cnn.com/HEALTH/ concerning SARS and ferrets?
As many people have already observed, there is a tremendous difference between being able to be infected with a disease, and carrying the disease. The Nature article has shown that ferrets can be experimentally infected with this coronavirus - that doesn't mean that they pose any significant risk for hmumans.
The Nature article has identified two species - cats and ferrets - that can potentially be used as research models to study this disease, not that they are any potential reservoir for this disease.
We must all remember, that there has been no identified cases of SARS in ferrets, we don't know if they can be naturally infected by a human host, how transmissible the virus is between humans and ferrets, and many other things.
At this point, to consider SARS to be any significant risk is extremely premature, and I for one, am not losing any sleep over it.
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, dVM