Jacqueline asked about ferret foods and BSE.  Most ferret foods are based
upon fowl meat (turkey or chicken) or fish meal, rather than beef.  Have
heard of lamb based one but don't know if scapie can cross species lines
and a number of these prion diseases don't seem to be able to.  (Know
that's why people weren't totally freaked about the cattle at first.)
There is also Transmissable Mink Encephalopathy according to _Saunders
Veterinary Dictionary_, and have read in newspapers of a form in elk and
deer in one part of the Inner Mountain West but not of any humans getting
it.  Dictionary says that the same agent that gets the cattle and humans
does affect cats with signs being crouched stance, temperament change to
timid or aggressive, head nodding, fine tremor, hypersalivation, and an
increased sensitivity to stimuli.
 
Was trying to recall the common name "scrapie" while writing this and the
phone rang with a sales call, so I greeted the salesperson with "Quick!
What's the common name of Spongiform Encelphalopathy in sheep?"  Got hung
up on very rapidly.
 
Sukie
(Still laughing about the website: http://www.apple.com/applemasters/imovie
[Corn Flake killer.  BIG]
[Posted in FML issue 3311]