Message Number: FHL14992 | New FHL Archives Search

From: Sukie Crandall
Date: 2012-03-23 04:11:54 UTC
Subject: [ferrethealth] some articles and food safety
To: fhl <ferrethealth@yahoogroups.com>

I was reading some articles recently:
one on sequelae of food poisoning
one on one aspect of diet, digestibility
and
one on deaths in mink farm

and all three (and some related things I looked up) coincidentally happen to weave together into an interesting ferret health topic.

First, as you know, one of the serious forms of lasting damage that can occur after food poisoning by shiga toxin E. coli bacteria is kidney damage. You also know that this one has been studied in ferrets because it was noticed that this sort of damage appeared in ferrets just as it does in people, for example in this study:

BEGIN QUOTED PARTIAL ABSTRACT FROM PUBMED
J Infect Dis. 2002 Feb 15;185(4):550-4. Epub 2002 Jan 22.

Ferrets as a model system for renal disease secondary to intestinal infection
with Escherichia coli O157:H7 and other Shiga toxin-producing E. coli.

Woods JB, Schmitt CK, Darnell SC, Meysick KC, O'Brien AD.

Department of Pediatrics, Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences,
Bethesda, Maryland 20814-4799, USA.

Ferrets were evaluated as a possible small animal model for the development of
colitis and/or signs of the hemolytic uremic syndrome after oral infection with
Escherichia coli O157:H7 or other Shiga toxin--producing E. coli (STEC).

END QUOTED PARTIAL ABSTRACT

The full text should be in
http://www.jid.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/pmidlookup?view=long&pmid=11865409
but that is not coming up right now so they might be doing site maintenance.

I do not know which of the other documented serious sequelae (problems that occur afterward -- like a movie sequel which is from the say word root) that can happen with food poisoning have been studied or are currently being studied in ferrets beyond that E.coli study verifying the same sort of kidney damage (but not the colitis sequela which can occur with humans), but in the April issue of Scientific American on pages 26 and 27 there is very intriguing article on the recent work on this problem in humans. Here, in a few words are some of the things encountered (and it would be interesting to see which if these might also happen in ferrets):

Salmonella or Shigella: reactive arthritis, urinary tract problems, eye damage

Campylobacter: Guillain-Barre, ulcerative colitis

Shiga Toxin producing strains of Escherichia coli (E. coli): kidney damage or failure, diabetes, increased rates of some cardiovascular problems (including hypertension, heart attack, stroke, and congestive heart failure)

Mentions from some other studies (which seem to indicate that the cause of the food poisoning was not specified either in this use of the studies or in the original studies) also listed chronic sequelae including increased rates of aortic aneurisms, and Crohn's Disease.

Which of these might also apply to ferrets I don't know beyond those two mentioned earlier , but since we know that the kidney damage one does apply to ferrets it may be wise to realize that perhaps some others also may occur or warrant study or both.

Influenza is a virus rather than a bacterium, but I was recently sent the full study article associated with this abstract by Dr. KJ Yoon, one of the authors:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22362526
Full text for subscribers:
http://vdi.sagepub.com/content/24/2/388.long
on the large mortality of mink in a farm which had the swine flu variant of avian influenza hit there, with secondary E. coli infection of the lungs causing pneumonia. Although I have NOT yet been able to get the information from anyone or any studies I found on which months influenza infections are more likely to happen in U.S. poultry farms I was was able to get some of the questions that arose answered. So, here is what I learned that could be of use:

The first part of the study discusses influenza strains, their relatedness, and having them infect multiple types of animals (including humans). Those who want a refresher on influenza can find it on the CDC site which is often a useful resource that i also enjoy:
http://www.cdc.gov/flu/

Then the study article goes into specifics of the mink farm situation: The farm is in the U.S. midwest and the epizooic began in October 2010 and lasted close to two months.

It began scattered throughout the large farm (15,000 mink on the farm) but different sections got much worse in clumps. I am assuming that indicates that the while the influenza began scattered throughout originally at about the same time, the secondary bacterial infection happened in chunks of compromised locations on the farm at different times. That is how those sections of the article read to me.

Up to 3% of the infected mink on the farm died during the acute stages. When used, antibodies decreased the death rates.

The symptoms were respiratory and consistent with influenza but then things worsened when the symptoms of secondary bacterial pneumonia joined the mix. (A number of FHL members have had ferrets with bacterial pneumonia, sometimes as secondary infection after a viral infection such as influenza so you know how this goes.) Infection was not from a live animal communication including humans; that possible route was eliminated, and it would be incredibly hard with a large farm with many caged animals in structures for an infected wild animal to have caused a sudden widely scattered simultaneous appearance of the initial disease.

The secondary infection and the influenza strain were found in the lung tissues of six mink sent for examination. Later in specimens from 20 more who were pelted there was confirming work of infection exposure. The secondary bacterial infection was E. coli in the lungs. The initial disease, the influenza, was a swine flu variant of avian influenza (an H1N2).

Other diseases for which they tested that were not present included CDV and ADV.

Those who feed raw might want to cook when influenza is more likely to be present in the chosen food source (which is why I have been trying so hard to find out if there are months when influenza is more likely to hit poultry farms to help you, but without success). Here is a short essential quote from the article:
> The mink were not fed pork byproducts, and there were no swineherds nearby; therefore, it was unexpected to identify FLUAV of swine origin. Interestingly, the owner of the mink ranch mentioned feeding of animals with turkey meat when chicken meat could not be supplied. Although a formal epidemiological study was not conducted, it is reasonable to speculate that the source of FLUAV was turkey because cross-species transmission of SIV, particularly H1N2 and H3N2, to turkeys commonly occurs, particularly after triple reassortant H3N2 FLUAV emerged in U.S. swine.1,19 Since the source of meat may have a role in bacterial and/or viral contamination in ration, the clinical episode in the mink ranch emphasizes the importance of carefully screening the source of meat as a preventive measure when mink are fed an uncooked ration. As a better intervention, feeding animals with fully cooked ration should be considered.
>
> References:
> Choi YK, Lee JH, Erickson G, et al.: 2004, H3N2 influenza virus transmission from swine to turkeys, United States. Emerg Infect Dis 10:2156–2160.
>
> 19. Suarez DL, Woolcock PR, Bermudez AJ, Senne DA: 2002, Isolation from turkey breeder hens of a reassortant H1N2 influenza virus with swine, human, and avian lineage genes. Avian Dis 46:111–121.
>

and it mentions past similar situations in mink and fitch (ferret) fur farms including one in Canada in recent years where the animals got H3N2 FLUAV from being fed uncooked pork byproducts (Gagnon CA, Spearman G, Hamel A, et al.: 2009, Characterization of a Canadian mink H3N2 influenza A virus isolate geneti- cally related to triple reassortant swine influenza virus. J Clin Microbiol 47:796–799. )

BTW, 23 references were used in the study bibliography.


>From a different study on influenza being silent in poultry but still having viral shedding at first just as it is in humans:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19023755

>Studies in experimentally infected birds suggest that clinical signs usually develop >within a few days of virus shedding; however, some models and outbreak descriptions >suggest that clinical signs may not become evident for a week or more in some H5 or H7 >HPAI-infected flocks. During this time, avian influenza viruses might be found in >poultry products. LPAI viruses can be shed in asymptomatically infected or minimally >affected flocks, but these viruses are unlikely to cause significant human...

Notice that backyard flocks don't have a high incidence of influenza in one U.S. study, but that in a Mali study the sharing of water sources with wild ducks increased the incidence:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21824379
and
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22085837

There are many studies on the communication of influenza from infected poultry to humans and animals who eat the birds or eggs, and in the U.S. once a flock is found to have influenza the birds can not be sold into the human food-stream. Of course, at first the infection will not be spotted. In a past post I gave a link to symptoms of influenza in poultry.

Then there is a recent study which indicates (only in terms of digestibility and only in relation to beef) that kibble is less digestible than raw or cooked beef, but that a cooked homemade beef diet is not significantly different from raw beef on that regard for CATS specifically. Remember that this does not cover a range of other essential aspects of nutrition at all, and is not only a first study but also differs considerably from some past human studies on digestibility so may need to be independently verified (which is never a bad idea with studies, and can be especially important when potentially groundbreaking or very different from previous results). That does not make it uninteresting, but while it is very intriguing it is important to recall that badly designed homemade foods, badly chosen raw foods (such as just meat rather than also including other parts of the animal, or just chicks and baby mice which tend to have poor mineral balances), or poor quality kibbles all can be unhealthy choices.

So, while there are multiple other studies needed in relation to some of the other aspects of nutrition, other foods, other animals, other binders with kibbles, and safety the portion which best sums up the results is this:
> Our results indicated cooking a raw meat diet does not alter apparent total tract energy and macronutrient digestibility and may also minimize risk of microbial contamination. Given the increasing popularity of feeding raw diets and the metabolic differences noted in this experiment, further research focused on the adequacy and safety of raw beef-based diets in domestic cats is justified.

which notes that the differences in the accessibility of those nutrients considered btwn raw and cooked were not statistically significant but cooked is safer, and that more study is needed.

Even once such studies are done, including more studies by the same authors, it will be important to see if the diet makes very much of a difference and in which ways it might do so. In human dietary studies for some medical concerns diet can matter but sometimes what helps decrease one risk can increase another risk. There is more and more discussion of eventually designing diets specific to individual needs. Exercise seems to be about the only that that is pretty much consistently beneficial in human studies, though most (NOT all) humans are helped by diets that contain whole grains, numerous servings of vegetables and fruits, a daily serving of about 30 grams ( = one ounce ) of certain nuts, not too much fat, enough but not too much protein, and enough Omega 3 Fatty Acid (fish, fax seed, etc.).

The abstract and short write up on the study:
http://evolveanimalnutrition.blogspot.com/2012/03/raw-diet-research-finally.html
abstract:
http://www.petfoodindustry.com/Research_Notes/Extruded_vs__raw_vs__cooked_beef-based_diets_for_cats.html

So, take all of what is above and previous discussions and you have why I personally like to do two things that I think might be useful for some others here:
1. I like food given to our ferrets to be cooked food or in the case of eggs to be pasteurized if raw yolks are given (See past posts in the separate FHL Archives on how to find places that sell pasteurized eggs since that is cooking but just long enough at a temperature which does not solidify the egg but which kills the common microbes that can cause infection.). Other people will make other choices for other reasons and those can be easily enough found in the archives of the FML and FHL to be weighed by each individual for that person's own choices.
2. The second is that I tend to figure that rather than assuming that sales pitches are accurate (no matter how convincingly or expensively or repeatedly or flashily said) for manufactured foods I prefer avoiding places that use lower price ingredients which can increase the chances of problems. I also consider that advertising is expensive and tv advertising is especially expensive so companies that don't charge through the nose for their foods but have a lot of advertising have to saving money somewhere and it might be on ingredients. So, I figure it pays to try to not buy from food makers who were named in current or recent recalls and I also look at the 2007 melamine recall list. The use of the products containing melamine seem like attempts to reduce ingredient costs, after all. Other recalls can also indicate that purchasing tendency, or can indicate possible handling concerns. Not all recalls wind up on the federal lists, like one in a recent year with too much D3 generating ingredients, so I also watch VIN which reported about that one in detail. Again, other people will make their own choices for their own reasons and those past posts can be found both of those archives mentioned which are also in my sig lines.

I figure I'll probably mess up at some point by missing something or otherwise screw up because we humans do tend to goof so all we can do is to know that nothing is perfect and that we can only try our best. That human vulnerability which we all share is important to remember that because it affects how well people medically treat the ferrets, how open they are with the vets, how they emotionally treat themselves, and how they emotionally treat others. (Twice --once with raw feeding and once with a specific kibble choice -- when people have spoken with me privately during fatal bouts of their ferrets' food poisoning they became defensive about their food choices. Really, reality is that these food selections are just product purchases, not some sort of core ethical choice. The most extreme of those people (in terms of how I was screamed at afterward for suggesting that she no longer delaying veterinary treatment and for helping her find lists of veterinarians) did delay treatment and then limited what the veterinarian was allowed to do to the point where the vet had no real chance of saving the ferret, and then she changed vets afterward (which she has done again since then), blaming anyone who tried to help rather than accepting the risk of the food choice used because she could not see it as just a product choice. So, here are some additional resources which can be useful for all though you will need to search in the USDA one for the internal URLs:
http://www.fda.gov/Safety/Recalls/default.htm
http://www.accessdata.fda.gov/scripts/newpetfoodrecalls/
http://www.aphis.usda.gov/animal_health/index.shtml
http://news.vin.com/VINNews.aspx?catId=0

There are no perfect choices, but there is information which can be used to optimize choices and minimize some avoidable risks. Just always be honest with your treating veterinarian and don't delay treatment when problems happen (and preferably don't scream at people who just are trying to help).

Please, DO open and enjoy the links I have included!

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
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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