I have gotten a reply from someone who is not affiliated with the same
rescue that has the Moorehouse ferrets but it really did not have useful
info.
 
I've spoken some with a clinical and research vet about this situation
and that person also is curious about details of the study protocol and
research related care.
 
Infection by Helicobacter mustelae is almost universal in domestic
ferrets and most cases do NOT flare up.
 
It IS possible that to conduct their study the researchers eliminated the
Helicobacter by using either of the effective protocols and then used
stomach endoscopic sampling to verify and thereafter allowed no risk of
reinfection.  That would not be unusual, but it would NOT explain an
unusually pronounced response to a later exposure to a bacterium the
species tends to handle well.
 
Ferrets should not be able to get H. pylori under normal conditions;
they may have had induced immune suppression and that is something to
check into.
 
There is NO known connection reported between Helicobacter and insulinoma
(Yes, I asked.), BUT there are studies on Helicobacter which call for a
low protein diet.  This is because Helicobacter uses ammonia to shield
itself form stomach acid.  Ammonia is a nitrogen rich compound and
therefore a nitrogen rich food (meat) might need to be reduced in some
studies of Helicobacter.  In that case the ferrets might have been on an
unusually high starch diet which could be at the root of there being so
many insulinoma cases.
 
The info needed is NOT going to come from what happened after rescue, I
think, but what happened BEFORE rescue, and in that case my suspicion is
that it points our merely that when research ferrets are taken in it's
important to ask for a copy of the study and care protocols but nothing
more for shelters themselves.
[Posted in FML issue 4720]