From:
sukiec@optonline.net
Date: 2005-06-24 16:39:31 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] RE: Can ferrets be given goats milk?
To: ferrethealth@smartgroups.com
Message-ID: <8372495.1119631171713.JavaMail.root@thallium.smartgroups.com>
Author wrote:
> If a farm sells raw milk, are the goats/ cows and the milk not meticulously
> tested regularly to avoid any disease causing agents being in the milk?
Not necessarily, hence the warning that the BC health publication had, and I certainly have seen the same sorts of warnings here in the U.S., plus I knew of a goat herd which had bTB a few years ago in my own state. It shows up in wild ungulates and domesticated ones. In the U.S. a state is considered "bTB-free" in a species if no more than something like 2 (?) herds show up with it over a space of several years (3?, 5?). Off hand, I forget the actual numbers of herds (not individual animals) and years involved in the classification but it is in the archives of the FHL, FML, or both.
Better to look for pasteurized, or to pasteurize yourself to be safe for the ferrets. bTB is one of the types of tuberculosis they do get and can pass along.