Message Number: FHL13689 | New FHL Archives Search
From: Sukie Crandall
Date: 2011-07-25 16:00:24 UTC
Subject: Re: [ferrethealth] Re: ADV and ferrets - breeders maybe not at fault -test for ADV only recent
To: ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com

Yes, it is important to be careful. Statements naming a company which are incorrect can cause harm. If people look at the rules in the Files section (including the "not Consumer Reports" section) that will help when composing a post. I recommend it to fellow FHL members.

However, it appears that ADV was in the Netherlands before then from my skimming. If you search scholarly articles for
Aleutian Netherlands
you will find that it was studied in mink there in the 1980s because I found such articles just with a quick skim. For many areas of the globe the fur industry and their mink is how this disease got into local wildlife in the first place, and the ultimate origin (multiple times over) of most of the ADV in ferrets is because some ferrets were exposed to infected mink at certain farms which had both. Certainly, since then ferrets have passed it among themselves, and other ferrets might be in situations to contract it from wildlife which themselves originally got it because of infected mink.

Given that there are wild vectors in so many places it is important that alternative possible causes of transmission are considered.

That said, there was a time in the distant past when an importer of ferrets TO the U.S. brought in infected domestic ferrets which was meticulously traced with distributor and farm testing finally to verify, so it can happen and could have happened there. The problem is the one you have tackled as well as possible in past letters, working toward establishing the link and eliminating alternative explanations as well as the circumstances permitted (which is not 100% because of the situation). This is best done when possible while the animals are still unsold, and then with follow-up at the origin. With the U.S. situation -- which was too long ago for me to recall many details but which may have happened in the years after the Ferret Mailing List archives began -- later shipments were tested right at the distributor which was here in NJ for a while and were infected so the authorities here contacted the authorities there (and I think those MIGHT also have been from NZ but as I said it was a long time ago) who had let the animals through as healthy. Those embarrassed authorities then tested at the farm itself and found ADV to be rampant there.

While a range of the color and marking variations which strongly appear to be connected with health woes in a range of mammals originated among the marketed ferrets at one of the medium sized farms in the U.S., a number of variations originated with small breeders, BTW. Some of these types are no longer seen; they were associated with such a very large number of problems that any size of breeder or farm culled those lines (which is obviously best done with neutering rather than more drastically). It is not accurate to specifically blame farms for many of the deleterious genetic variations associated with certain colors and markings.


On Jul 25, 2011, at 2:13 AM, stepheniebaas wrote:

> The outbreak of ADV in Holland was in 2005, so Dr Murray was correct in saying that we have had ADV in Holland, I am not blaming the breeder, I am only saying that the ADV was at that time, brought into Holland with imported ferrets, whether they got it from the breeder or along the way, too us it makes no difference. BUT I must apologize, the ferrets came from
> Mystic Ferrets, not Path Valley ferrets.

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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