While it is true that San Antonio was the first major outbreak, SAFE never
kept it quiet.  There is a large difference between covering an outbreak
and yelling fire in a crowded theater.
 
Rick and Candy have been a tremendous resource to the ferret community
through this devastating outbreak, and to my knowledge, have never hidden
anything from anyone (as Rick's recent posts demonstrate.)  I was brought
in early on this outbreak, as were Dr. Gates and Dr. Bloom, and the
material and information that they have provided have been extremely
beneficial data in my laboratory, and have facilitated the development
of an immunohistochemical procedure to detect the parvoviral antigen in
formalin-fixed tissue.  Our current research is building on the development
of this test, and hopefully will yield additional information on the
pathogenesis of ADV in the ferret.
 
Over the last three years, there have been at least four times that I have
called Rick and Candy on behalf of someone who was undergoing a similar
ADV outbreak to ask if they would talk to the person, and each time they
have responded with kindness and sage counsel.  The people whom they have
helped during an extremely difficult period in their lives considered them
a godsend, as I do.
 
To my knowledge, Rick and Candy have acted only in the most professional
and most charitable manner during the course of their outbreak.  They shut
down immediately, they contacted traceable adoptions, and they promised
lifelong health care to 65 ferrets who had received a death sentence.
They followed up with providing continuing documentation and tissues on
the largest ADV outbreak that I am aware of - hopefully a one-of-a-kind
opportunity to study this disease as it passes through a large facility.
There was never any attempt to keep this outbreak quiet - anyone who knows
Rick and Candy know better.  If anything was done quietly, it was the daily
grind of taking care of 65 animals who were (and are) dying well before
their time, and the heartbreak that goes along with it.  An outbreak of
ADV in a rescue facility is far worse than one of ECE - everyone dies,
and I don't think that it is anything that any of us can really fathom -
except those who have been there.
 
Bruce Williams, DVM
[Posted in FML issue 3468]