We've talked about epigenetics here before, I think. Epigenetics is the
study of environmental effects which can determine which genes express
themselves or to what degree. A number of these effects have been
found to occur in the fetus during pregnancy with more under study or
proposed for study (which underscores the importance of funding better
study into things like maternal environment in terms of foods, smoke
(including side-stream), etc.) but epigenetic effects can also occur
later.

Because some of the epigenetic things studied so far appear to affect
a number of species I will send a short post with a bit of info but
mostly links. Be sure to use or copy and use the entire links when you
travel them.

>Scientists at the University of Auckland's Liggins centre say the way
>the foetus adapts to the environment in the womb can determine how it
>reacts to food later in life.
>
>... low in nutrients, the foetus may predict food supplies will be
>low later in life and set its metabolism to store and conserve fat,
>the researchers led by Professor Peter Gluckman...

>The results of their latest study will be published this week in the
>prestigious American journal Proceedings of the National Academy of
>Science.

These news links should work:
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-07/25/content_6427137.htm
http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/4139257a7144.html
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-07/25/content_6427137.htm

Pubmed has this (which can be legally shared) and when you bring it
up in
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrez
it will link to further articles.

>Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2007 Jul 23; [Epub ahead of print]
>Metabolic plasticity during mammalian development is directionally
>dependent on early nutritional status.
>
>Gluckman PD, Lillycrop KA, Vickers MH, Pleasants AB, Phillips ES,
>Beedle AS, Burdge GC, Hanson MA.
>Liggins Institute, University of Auckland, Private Bag 92019,
>Auckland 1023, New Zealand; 
>Development and Cell Biology,  
>University of Southampton, Bassett Crescent East, Southampton SO16 7PX,
>United Kingdom; 
>AgResearch Limited, Ruakura Research Centre, Private Bag 3123,
>Hamilton 3240, New Zealand.
>
>Developmental plasticity in response to environmental cues can take
>the form of polyphenism, as for the discrete morphs of some insects,
>or of an apparently continuous spectrum of phenotype, as for most
>mammalian traits. The metabolic phenotype of adult rats, including
>the propensity to obesity, hyperinsulinemia, and hyperphagia,
>shows plasticity in response to prenatal nutrition and to neonatal
>administration of the adipokine leptin. Here, we report that the
>effects of neonatal leptin on hepatic gene expression and epigenetic
>status in adulthood are directionally dependent on the animal's
>nutritional status in utero. These results demonstrate that, during
>mammalian development, the direction of the response to one cue
>can be determined by previous exposure to another, suggesting the
>potential for a discontinuous distribution of environmentally
>induced phenotypes, analogous to the phenomenon of polyphenism.
>PMID: 17646663 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

The release isn't in
http://www.sciencedaily.com/
http://www.news-medical.net/
or
http://www.eurekalert.org/bysubject/medicine.php
yet though here is a genetic metabolic defect article from yesterday:

http://www.eurekalert.org/bysubject/index.php?kw=152

And this might lead to eventually giving an indication why too much
D3 can be dangerous to some animals, including multiple members of
Carnivora by causing hypercalcemia, while other species like humans
are more tolerant of that nutrient (kind of the opposite of the way
that many members of Carnivora are much more tolerant of high levels
of A than humans are):

http://qnc.queensu.ca/story_loader.php?id=46a644ef2b3ec

(too little is also bad, causing trouble utilizing calcium)

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html

[Posted in FML 5680]