Message Number: SG10346 | New FHL Archives Search
From: sukiec@optonline.net
Date: 2004-08-30 21:13:20 UTC
Subject: RE: [ferrethealth] ferret coughing
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <8175804.1093900400613.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>

Author wrote:
>autopsy and they found he had
> T.B!!!

Yes. In the U.S. when it happens it is usually avian TB. If you search in past posts from vet pathologist, Dr. Bruce Williams in the Complete Ferret Archives in
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org
you can learn about this here:
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=SG5675
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=YG11774
http://fhl.sonic-weasel.org/browse.php?msg=YG11719

Bovine TB in ferrets is rare now in the U.S. now that people do not usually feed raw beef or raw milk (ersp. raw milk if memory serves).

Clinical signs can include "granulomatous enteritis, anorexia, vomiting, weight loss, debilitation, and diarrhea ... invades mesenteric and abdominal lymph nodes and may lead to emaciation and paralysis of the adductor muscles [the muscles which move the limb away] of the pelvic limbs*".

If there are enlarged mesenteric lymphnodes a biopsy which includes that bacterium will include "demonstration of acid-fast bacilli*"

When present the zoonotic potential (cross-infection) has to be considered esp. with the bovine form, BUT Mycobacterium avium is widely present in the environment and usually requires an individual to be immune suppressed already to get it (hense it showing up in those with a disease like lympho). As Dr. Bruce Williams wrote:
>avium is the most ubiquitous of the mycobacteria in our environment,
>and all of us, human, dog, cat and ferret, come in contact with it
>many many times a day. It does not pose a contagion risk to any
>normal healthy individual, however, it may pose a small risk to
>infants, the aged, or immunosuppressed people such as post-transplant
>recipients or people with AIDS.

* Dr. Karen Purcell's vet text, _Essentials of Ferrets_, AAHA Press