Recall greatly expanded: <http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/Recall_034_2009_Expanded/index.asp> This is a shiga toxin producing bacterium so cooking can kill the bacterium BUT too much of the toxin remains so cooking is not a real solution though less extreme than raw exposure. When ferrets survive it (which they too often don't) it can cause kidney damage. It has killed both domestic ferrets and BFFs. (Also a hazard for humans and multiple other species...) <http://jcm.asm.org/cgi/content/full/42/12/5904?view=long&pmid=15583337> http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11865409 http://www.jwildlifedis.org/cgi/reprint/37/3/617 <http://mic.sgmjournals.org/cgi/reprint/144/1/103?view=long&pmid=9467902> Danish mink studies on which antibiotics this and other bacteria were resistant to and at what levels: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18620819 etc. Initial symptoms include: sudden death, dehydration, anorexia and diarrhea If it has been survived then changing to kidney-protective routines for the rest of life (reduced phosphorous or reduced protein if you can't reduce phosphorous, adding fish oil, extra fluids, etc.) simply makes sense. See resources about some approaches like: http://ferrethealth.org/archive/SG15335 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/ http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/ http://www.ferretcongress.org/ http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html all ferret topics: http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html [Posted in FML 6378] =========================================================================Date: Sun, 28 Jun 2009 22:18:48 -0400 From: Andy McDonel <[log in to unmask]> Subject: Ferrets and SwineFLu *MIME-Version: 1.0 *Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" *Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit wow <http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124606298371663817.html?mod=googlenews_wsj> [Posted in FML 6378]