From _Ferrets, Rabbits, and Rodents, Clinical Medicine and Surgery,
2nd ed._  (Quesenberry and Carpenter)  (in this one you need to look up
mycobacteriosis to find it and the section in the newer edition seems to
be much shorter than in the first but I don't have my copy of that text
handy right now):
 
>Ferrets are extremely sensitive to mycobacteriosis...
>Most... reported from Europe, where ferrets are... often fed uncooked
>meat and meat byproducts... owners should be instructed to only offer
>cooked meat to their animals...
 
From _Biology and Diseases of the Ferret, 2nd ed._ (Fox) which has a
very large section on Mycobacteria:
 
>highly susceptible to certain species of Mycobacterium, including avian,
>bovine and human tubercule bacilli
 
>The disease continues to be recognized in New Zealand ferret farms
 
>Tuberculosis was recorded in ferrets during the period when the of
>unpasteurized milk, raw poultry, and meat (including meat by-products)
>was routinely performed... the general use of commercially prepared
>cat or ferret diets as the sole food source for ferrets also has
>appreciably reduced the possibility of introducing this disease...
 
There are other routes of infection but they are more rare.  Symptoms
quoted are what the other texts say but there is also a section on the
possibility of bTB remaining for a long time in a ferret before symptoms
begin:
 
>First difficulty walking, with the hind legs splayed; the extent of
>the paralysis progressed, and the animal was killed and necropsied.
>Tubercle bacilli isolated from this animal was inoculated
>intramuscularly into another ferret.  The second ferret remained normal
>until 6 months later...
>in ferrets splenomegaly , hepatomegaly, and intestinal nodules can also
>be detected by palpation in cases with disseminated, multiple organ
>involvement
 
BTW, TB can sometimes be found in ferrets with intestinal x-rays.
 
>Recurrent M.  bovis infection following a ferret bite has been recorded
(The human patient whose hand was the part involved was treated and the
case is considered very unusual.)
 
Obviously, for domestic ferrets this is a rare disease since more control
of infected herds, pasteurization of dairy products, and more feeding or
cooked meat or of kibble, though among feral ferret-polecat crosses or
polecats (It's unclear quite what is feral in NZ) there was a population
found with about 70% infection rate of bTB.  See a post of mine a few
days ago for the source.  Currently, most TB cases in U.S.  ferrets are
of avian strains in already ill or immune suppressed individuals and the
avian strains are not the zoonotic concern that bTB and human TB are
except when a severely ill human is also present in the family.
 
-- Sukie (who is glad to be past the last few weeks when 3 elderly
human family members were hospitalized)
[Posted in FML issue 4784]