Well both tests are not 100% accurate and were both designed to be done
every 3 months by fur farms not annually as most ferret owners do them.
I started testing with the CIEP test in 1990 and changed over to the
Avecon Quick Test in 2001 after a year of dual testing.  One thing we did
find is that the Avecon test will pick up a newly infected ferret before
the CIEP but in ferret that has been carrying the virus for some time the
CIEP is more reliable.  Over the 10 years of using the CIEP I had a false
negative rate of 2% but I have no way to check on false positives.  So
far we have not had many false negative reported back to us but again
have no way to check if any of the positives were false.  Again a 2%
failure rate is expected.  We are testing around 500 ferrets a year so
the results are a pretty good average.  We like the Quick Test as we can
test at shows and the rescues can go to homes as soon they are picked up.
We test rescues again 28 days after the first test and so far have not
found one turn positive.
 
Chris.
 
Wessex Ferret Club  (http://www.wessexferretclub.co.uk)
[Posted in FML issue 4957]