Well, as those who listened to Dr. Karen's talk at the 2008 IFC
Symposium know there is mink spongiform encephalopathy which is the
form of prion disease that has been seen in ferrets if fed those mink
neural tissues but I doubt anyone here is feeding minks to their
ferrets. There are a number of different prion diseases. Not all cross
specific species barriers, and some can cross barriers only if there
are certain specific intermediate hosts. None of the attending vets
challenged that the other prion diseases aren't really a concern. I
would not let the hype worry you, but instead learn more on the topic
first.
There is vegetable derived melatonin, but animal sources are not the
only other alternative. Much melatonin sold is created to simulate
natural mammalian melatonin rather than being from cattle. So, there is
artificial melatonin for many uses. Not being from vegetable sources
does not automatically mean melatonin is from animal sources any
longer.
Neither CDC nor the World Health Organization list any hazard that I
can find when I searched. All that I could find from anywhere that
could possibly be trustworthy were these (See the YEAR on each.)
http://www.vrp.com/deardoctorresults.aspx?ProdID=deard563&zTYPE=3http://www.merck.com/mmpe/sec22/ch331/ch331t.html
and no definite risk is mentioned anywhere reputable that I could find.
I DID also check PubMed and found no abstracts on my search that
mentioned melatonin supplements as a source of any prion disease.
There were some OLD "this should be looked into" things but notice that
nothing came from them and that any such hazards would have been well
announced if they had been. There were also a load of total hype things
out there on the internet, ones that basically have the validity of the
rumor mill.
Also, notice that although there is a dearth of regulation for some
aspects of "health food store" type products that the FDA DOES pull and
ban products which have proven to have hazards. If you go to
http://www.fda.gov/opacom/7alerts.html
and search or even just scroll you will find a number of such items.
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.htmlhttp://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/http://www.ferretcongress.org/http://www.trifl.org/index.shtmlhttp://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
[Posted in FML 6220]
