I honestly do not know what the answer is to this dilemma. I've
pondered on this for years. Some of my ferrets were "surplus to
experiments" in research labs - smuggled out by the techs. My late
father when I lived in the UK derived a great deal of relief after
years of pain from a gastric ulcer when they discovered (from ferret
studies) that ferrets had a bacterium - helicobacter mustelae - that
was related to the human bacterium helicobacter pylori, and in certain
conditions caused ulcers similar to those of humans. My dad in the
1970's no longer had pain from ulcers because he used the med that
cured ulcers in ferrets. So I have mixed feelings.

Also, I worked in a couple of research labs as a technician when I came
to the US - could not use my pharmacy degree over here - so worked in
animal research labs - mostly on rats, a few of which I smuggled home
for pets when they were "surplus". Ironically it was because I liked
animals, but was interested in pharmacology. Worked also in labs where
rabbits, rats, mice, and in one place dogs were used. All for things
associated with human problems. Dogs (matched specially genetically
bred beagles) were used for experimental liver transplants. Ichiban,
the beagle who first survived a matched liver transplant - was sent
home to live his life out with a lab tech. I remember him coming back
to visit wagging his tail in the lab. The donors were not as lucky. The
researchers and techs did not like using the dogs but tried their best
to make sure the animals were treated humanely, always completely under
anesthesia for surgery, and not in pain afterwards. Perhaps not all
research facilities are as careful, but animals in pain usually give
bad/skewed experimental results or do not do well.

I don't know if we humans would be willing to return to a world where
H5N1 flu exists with no vaccine, and no treatment for gastric ulcers.
I quote a section from Susan Brown DVM's website on ferrets.

"One of their first uses was for the study of human influenza virus,
to which they are susceptible. Currently they are used in virology,
toxicology, pharmacology, reproductive physiology, endocrinology,
physiology, teratology, and anatomy research. A fortunate byproduct of
their use in research has been tremendous growth in our understanding
of ferret anatomy, physiology and ferret disease".

So there have been benefits for the pet ferrets - but I guess we humans
like to get cures for ourselves but not use our own species as guinea
pigs. Ferrets have replaced guinea pigs.

The best we can do (in my opinion) is make sure the animals used
for research are treated humanely and are euthanized quickly and
painlessly. Otherwise its back to deaths/epidemics due to H1N1, ulcer
perforations, and other conditions. If they find a cure for lung cancer
using ferret lung tissue in tests is there any one of us who would
refuse treatment? Dr Brown's website notes that this country has many
ferret breeding establishments - so for the use in research the US has
a large supply of ferrets.

I found there was twelve billion dollars of funding for areas of
research commonly using ferrets in 2006 see below:

<http://www.genome.gov/Pages/Research/Sequencing/SeqProposals/FerretSeq.pdf>
Excerpt:
"The six areas of biomedical research that most commonly use ferrets
(cystic fibrosis, influenza and other respiratory diseases, lung
cancer, reproductive and fetal biology, neuroscience, and specific
forms of cancer) are collectively responsible for over 12 billion
dollars of funding from the National Institutes of Health alone for
2006. This total represents about 44% of the NIH annual grant monies."

I don't like it, but not much I can do about it except appreciate Dr 
Brown's website comment about the benefits to ferrets' health.

Meryl

[Posted in FML 7093]