ttp://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/Recall_077_2011_Release/index.asp Shiga toxin producing E. coli can be fatal for both ferrets and humans, and when survived can cause the same serious kidney damage in both. Since there are people who provide beef to their ferrets. Cooking kills the bacterium but some references say that it may not denature enough of the toxin. More recently more refs are saying that cooking well done often helps enough. Personally, in such a situation I'd return such beef simply because it seems a silly risk when there are options, especially with studies like this from last year: <http://www.ars.usda.gov/research/publications/publications.htm?seq_no_115=249821> Three article about this in ferrets: http://jid.oxfordjournals.org/content/185/4/550.long http://jcm.asm.org/cgi/content/full/42/12/5904 http://www.jwildlifedis.org/cgi/reprint/37/3/617 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 "All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow." (2010, Steve Crandall) [Posted in FML 7196]
