So, now let's talk about the possibility of American ferrets catching TB.
You or your ferret cannot get TB unless exposed, so even though there
are a lot of risk factors that increase the possibility of contracting
disease, the only one that really counts is exposure.  If you have every
single risk factor and are not exposed, you will not get TB.  You can do
the math yourself, if a ferret is not exposed to active TB, then it has a
risk factor of zero.
 
What that means is that for a ferret to contract tuberculosis, it either
has to consume TB infected food, or come into contact with a person or
animal having active TB.  I suppose you could add the risk of a ferret
sniffing or tasting TB-infected spit on a sidewalk or dug out of a
hankie, or something along those lines, but the chances are miniscule,
and zero if you don't let them play in bloody spit.  Since for the vast
majority of Americans the source of chicken or beef for ferrets is the
same as for people, the chance of a ferret contracting TB from their
food is extremely low.  We also know that in the USA (and Canada and the
EU, etc.) that tuberculosis is monitored.  The rules of monitoring are
complex and exacting (you are invited to review the USDA regulations
yourself; they gave me a headache), so I won't try to explain them here,
but you should know that meat sold in the USA has to be shown to be TB
free (there are a number of ways to prove it).  Think about what happens
when a little E. coli gets out-- it makes the national news!  If TB were
in the food, we sure as hell would know about it because it would be
leading the 6 o'clock news.  The only other food source of infection
would be from dairy products.  One of the common sources of TB infection
during the early part of the 1900s was from consuming raw milk, a problem
that doesn't exist with pasteurized milk.  The truth is the chance of a
ferret getting TB from raw food is next to zero.
 
A ferret catching TB from an infected person is far more probable and
shelters could actually face risks of tuberculosis from ferrets that were
infected from previous owners.  Or, if a person infected one pet and a
ferret was housed with that animal, it is possible they could get TB.
But, from eating raw food?  Well, I can't say it is impossible.  Think
about this; the chance of a ferret contracting rabies is extremely
small, yet in the last decade there have been scattered reports.  I have
searched government databases, Medline, and all science databases, and
not a single confirmed report of a ferret catching TB from food has been
made in the USA.  In fact, try to find a single non-intentional case of
a ferret infected with TB in the USA.  It is possible I have missed a
report; I didn't spend weeks searching for them.  But even so, the
chances of a ferret contracting TB in the USA from ANY source would be
significantly LESS than a ferret contracting rabies.
 
I worry, worry, worry about canine distemper; it is a nasty disease and
no animal should suffer from it.  So, I vaccinate once a year, and my
worries evaporate.  I worry about periodontal disease, which will make
your ferret's life painful, knock down their strength and resistance,
and then contribute to their death, so I brush their teeth and have them
cleaned.  I even worry about ADV even though I protect my ferrets from
exposure religiously.  The only worry I have about rabies is that a
ferret will chew on someone and end up losing their head over it.  My
worry about tuberculosis?  It isn't even in my mind, even when my ferrets
eat raw meat, which they do every single day.
 
Bob C
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[Posted in FML issue 4651]