From:
"Sukie Crandall"
Date: 2009-05-15 22:15:33 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: Ferret FIP question
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com
There are tests, and then there are tests...
The tests to tell if there has been a coronavirus
exposure are more straightforward, BUT the
testing to tell WHICH coronavirus is involved
is very, very specialized, to the point that there
were researchers not only in North America but
also in Europe who were using the MSU specialists
and their equipment. This is NOT the sort of
thing that even most states or regions have any place
able to do the specialized testing for. Instead, they
can tell that there was SOME TYPE of coronavirus
and guess at which one, but they can NOT tell
the TYPE of coronavirus.
That is why people send specimens from all over
to MSU, because it can tell the TYPE exactly.
Some forms of coronavirus in various species include
ECE, FIP, and SARS.
Presumptions about type of coronavirus also caused
problems in some early SARS studies when some
researchers who were used to human health did
not realize that cats can have FIP and ferrets can
have ECE, then did general coronavirus testing --
which is what was probably done on your ferrets
and shows that an exposure to some form of
coronavirus happened at some point, but, gee whiz,
the necropsies showed damage that wasn't consistent
with SARS. So they probably used cats with FIP exposure
and ferrets with ECE exposure for their SARS research
and totally messed up their results because of that.
It would be best for specimens to go to MSU. If yours
actually do have true FIP when the extremely specialized
genetic viral testing is done then that data would be
incredibly important. if the ECE mutant is involved it
also would be useful for you to know that, and if there
is something else or also something else then that, too,
would help you to know.
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