You may have seen some of Cathy and Sharon's posts on the FML reminding
you about the opportunity to donate funds to ferret research.

The IFC will be presenting two research checks this year at the 2011
Symposium in Phoenix. One check will be presented to Dr. Matti Kiupel
who is a researcher at the Ferret Health Advancement Center at Michigan
University. He works with quite a team of researchers and collaborates
with some of our great ferret vets like Doc Murray, Williams and
Gardner. You might say Dr. Kiupel gets right into the guts of it all.
He likes to study the viruses; coronas, rotas; "ucky" things like
Coccidiosis, ECE, and also, ADV and DIM. These "conditions and bugs "
seem to require ongoing study to learn more about each, but also
because some mutate. You can read more about this team at
http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/Personnel.php

Doc Wagner's recent research is quite popular with the invent of the
Deslorelin implant.The Des Implant study is on going, the GnRH vaccine
study is also ongoing, (a vaccine for the prevention and treatment of
ACD.) He completed his Canine Distemper Virus vaccine titer study.
(Ferrets do not appear to need to be vaccinated against CDV yearly.)
The Deslorelin study continues to collect data, although Dr. Wagner has
published initial findings in that study in the summer (July /August)
2009 Journal of Exotic Vet Medicine. According to Dr. Wagner, the GnRH
(adrenal vaccine) study and the titer study are written up in the
Volume 6 Proceedings of the AFA "A Comprehensive Veterinary Symposium"
Advanced Course "Management of the Ferret" (for Veterinary
Professionals) Conference in Blackburg, Virginia. Copies are
available to anyone who wishes to purchase one from the AFA store at
http://www.ferret.org/shopping/education.html
Cost is $35.00.

Doc Wagner has three more projects he is working on or gearing up to
work on for ferrets that need funding. They include; further test
development for hypothyroid testing in ferrets (apparently there are
too many fat ferrets out there), Evaluating Thymidine Kinase (TK)
activity in ferrets with known lymphosarcoma (LSA) with different types
or clinical stages and compare to known healthy ferrets, and more work
on insulinoma. Arginine Stiumation testing with a given protocol which
should be useful in confirming a diagnosis of Insulinoma in ferrets.
Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) implants are expensive but would
be an excellent method of testing ferret's to determine glucose curves
in insulinomic and normal ferrets.

The IFC will match donations collected up to a total of $1500!

Please make checks payable to the International Ferret Congress (IFC)
and mail to:

Sharon Bearden, IFC
1245 Curtis Switch Rd
Mineral Bluff, GA 30559

Or you can use Paypal and pay to [log in to unmask]

Please note how you would like your donation to be applied. Also,
please include how you would like your listing on the donors' page
to appear. You can have either your name, a family member or friend
listed, or the name of a beloved furkid or human listed as a memorial
to him or her.

Although donations will be accepted until May 30, the deadline to
receive a listing in the program is April 30.

Eleanor, Donald and teh 10 ferrets

[Posted in FML 7044]