The terminology associated with malignant lymphoma (lymphosarcoma) can be
tricky.
 
Leukemia simply means that a neoplastic proliferation of white blood cells
is occurring in the peripheral blood and/or the bone marrow.  It says
nothing about the cell type (although the vast majority are lymphocytic
leukemias), or the differentiation of the cells - immature neoplastic
lymphocytes in the blood is called acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL) and
mature neoplastic lymphocytes is called chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL).
The chronic forms of leukemia generally have a longer average lifespan.
 
While feline leukemia is generally considered to be retroviral in origin,
realize that there are spontaneous forms of non-viral leukemias in cats
(which could also be called feline leukemias, if that name hadn't been
subsumed for one particular disease.
 
There has long been speculation and some good circumstantial evidence that
some forms of ferret lymphoma are viral in origin, but it has not yet been
conclusively proven.  So the answer to your second question is an
unqualified "maybe"....
 
With kindest regards,
Bruce Williams, DVM, DACVP
 
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[Posted in FML issue 3457]