From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2010-04-17 16:28:34 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] Re: mention of a possible Seattle general area canine distemper outbreak
To: fhl <ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com>, Ferret Mailing List <ferret-l@LISTSERV.FERRETMAILINGLIST.ORG>
I was talking with Dr. Ruth Heller, and here are further reminders from
some of my own past posts for the people who are (or will be) in regions
with a lot of canine distemper this year:
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL9598
in part:
> I keep posting this and somehow people keep missing it even though it
> must now be in as many as a half dozen places in each the archives of
> the FHL and the FML. I apologize for not thinking of mentioning it
> again, but have had quite a lot of serious family needs recently.
>
> > J Nutr. 2007 Aug;137(8):1916-22.
> > Disease manifestations of canine distemper virus infection in
> > ferrets are modulated by vitamin A status.
> > Rodeheffer C, von Messling V, Milot S, Lepine F, Manges AR, Ward BJ.
> > McGill University Health Centre Research Institute, Faculty of
> > Medicine, Division of Infectious Diseases, Montreal General
> > Hospital, Montreal, QC, Canada.
> >
> > The measles virus (MV) causes half a million childhood deaths
> > annually. Vitamin A supplements significantly reduce measles-
> > associated mortality and morbidity. The mechanisms whereby vitamin A
> > acts against MV are not understood and currently there is no
> > satisfactory small animal model for MV infection. We report on the
> > development of a ferret model to study antiviral activity of vitamin
> > A against canine distemper virus (CDV). CDV is closely related to MV
> > at the molecular level and distemper in ferrets mimics measles in
> > humans. We infected vitamin A-replete (control) and vitamin A-
> > depleted ferrets with CDV and assessed the ability of high-dose
> > vitamin A supplements to influence CDV disease. In control ferrets,
> > CDV infection caused fever, rash, conjunctivitis, cough, coryza, and
> > diarrhea. In contrast, control ferrets that were given 30 mg of
> > vitamin A did not develop typical distemper after infection and
> > exhibited only a mild rash. The supplement did not negatively affect
> > ferret health and resulted in a 100% increase in serum and liver
> > vitamin A concentrations. We also found that profound vitamin A
> > deficiency is inducible in ferrets and can be rapidly reversed upon
> > high-dose vitamin A supplementation. Vitamin A deficiency caused
> > anorexia, diarrhea, cataracts, behavioral abnormalities, and
> > ultimately death, with or without CDV infection. All ferrets that
> > received vitamin A supplements, however, recovered uneventfully from
> > CDV infection. These results replicate many aspects of the
> > observations of vitamin A therapy in humans with measles and suggest
> > that CDV infection in ferrets is an appropriate model for the study
> > of the antiviral mechanism of vitamin A.
> >
> > PMID: 17634264
> >
>
> The full article is HERE:
>
> http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/reprint/137/8/1916
>
> PHOTOS:
>
> http://www.all-about-ferrets.com/canine-distemper-in-ferrets.html
>
> http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/170303.htm
>
> http://www.radil.missouri.edu/info/dora/ferrpage/hold/respir.html
>
> http://web.mac.com/exoticdvm/mammal_archives_2008/Archives.html
>
> http://www.pet-informed-veterinary-advice-online.com/canine-distemper.html
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL9659
> > I have read the papers on distemper and vitamin A with great
> interest.
> But 30 mg of vitamin A is a large dose. Could it be possible that
> they meant
> 30 mcg? I wonder.
>
>
> I have communicated with Dr. Brian Ward who was one
> of the study authors and he sent this information for the
> FHL membership:
>
> START QUOTE
>
> Hello Sukie
> No typo or error ...
> When we launched this study, we had no idea what the
> kinetics of vitamin A deficiency and sufficiency were in
> ferrets and we decided to give a good large dose to
> replenish depleted stores. There was no toxicity
> associated with the 50,000IU daily dose x2 and this
> dose is not so different from the WHO recommended
> 100,000 IU daily for 3 days for small kids (a good sized
> ferret weighs ~1-1.5 kg in my experience).
> Brian
>
> END QUOTE
>
> THE FULL ARTICLE CAN BE FOUND for free here:
>
> http://jn.nutrition.org/cgi/reprint/137/8/1916
Remember that unlike humans, most of whom ancestrally get
proportionally little Vitamin A -- varying by very long-standing
ancestral diet heritage, ferrets ancestrally got a lot A due to
the number of livers and other high A sources their predecessors
would have had. (Like dogs, though, they can not deal with as
high levels of Vitamin D as humans, so things like hypercalcemia
become concerns if they get too much D. Those of us who ancestrally
are used to having a lot of skin exposure to the sun -- like
humans -- actually need to get a lot of D and too low levels appear
to reduce the ability to fight off viruses, are bad for bones, may
be hard on our hearts, and may be a precursor in some for
multiple sclerosis or for diabetes, and there is more in PubMed:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20373291
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez
On the other hand, ferrets are from creatures which ancestrally
lived in extremely dark burrows and had dawn and dusk as their
primary hours of high outside activity except when the weather
or other factors forced them out at other times so they are not
made for dealing with high amounts of D since sun exposure causes
the body to create more of that hormone. (Yes, D is actually a
hormone.) BTW, that ancestral lack of much light exposure
also plays into adrenal disease discussions so look it up in the
FML and FHL archives. They are in my sig lines and here are tips:
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL11292
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL11293
Yes, think of humans and ferrets the opposite on Vitamins A and D.
They can deal with a lot more A (and maybe need more) but apparently
can not deal well with a lot of D. We can't deal with a lot of A but
often
are too low in D for optimal health and we may even be set up for a
number
of health problems by not getting enough D, so among other things get
your children outside actively playing (the exercise is also healthy
for their
lifetimes) BUT don't have them take the ferrets out with them.
Instead if
you have an outside play area for your ferrets that is safe let them
use it
around dawn, around dusk, and at night most of the times that it is
used.
It appears that higher levels of Vitamin A do very well to help ferret
NOT
get canine distemper.
Re:
> http://blog.seattlepi.com/thebigblog/archives/202209.asp
>
> Speak with your vets if your ferrets:
> 1. do not have canine distemper vaccine onboard within the year
> 2. have only pet store shots (which are not full series)
> OR
> 3. do not have high canine distemper titer numbers.
> For titer info: http://www.ferret.org/news/07-april-titer_study.html
>
> There are times when the rate of canine distemper in wildlife
> increases and when that happens the chances of tracking it into your
> home also increase.
Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
all ferret topics:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html
"All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow."
(2010, Steve Crandall)
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