The final installments of the feral posts are ready to ship; I just have to
decide how to break them up for the best flow.  Today I have two references
for your pursual.  One concerning cancer in ferrets and the other concerning
thermoregulation.
 
Hannu Korhonen, Mikko Harri and Juha Asikainen "Thermoregulation of polecat
and raccoon dog: a comparative study with stoat, mink, and blue fox." 1983
_Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology_ (Series A) Volume 74A, Number 2,
pages 225-230.
 
Thermoregulation is a fancy word that describes an animal's methods of
maintaining body heat.  It can apply to cold- or warm-blooded animals, but
in most cases, it describes how higher vertebrates keep warm or cool.  This
paper is a comparative study that I'm sure most of you will just love to
read to cure insomnia, but there is one area of interest for people who
desire addressing the feral ferret issue.  There is no way I can address
this issue in the FML due to space, plus the FML isn't exactly brimming over
with biochemists.  (This is *not* a slam at anyone; I think computer
programing is magic.  I can't even program an applet on my mac, which
illustrates my pathetic abilities.  I'm just pointing out that it takes years
of study just to understand the basics, and it is very hard to explain it in
this type of a forum).  So I will only address the portion useful to us.
 
I am a loud and sometimes blunt proponent that ferrets cannot become feral
in areas that contain mink, such as most parts of Ca Ca land, oops, I mean
California.  This is partly to the polecat not being as resistant to cold
temperatures as the mink, due to a combination of metabolic rate and fur
insulation.  Duh, you say.  That is why rich old women don't wear ferret
coats.  Quite simply, in areas where cold is the limiting factor, mink
occupy the colder territory (higher or more northerly)
 
Why should we care?  We all know the difficulty of the ferret in hot
climates.  This shows extreme cold to also be a problem.  Taking the Sierras
as an example, during the winter, a polecat cannot outcompete a mink in cold
areas, and in summer it can't outcompete the short- and longtailed weasels
in the warmer areas.  And since the ranges of mink and weasels overlap in
California, where can the polecat go?  How can it establish itself?  And the
polecat has been proven to be a magnitude better hunter than the ferret.
Even in New Zealand, ferrets couldn't do the job, and polecats, stoats, and
weasels were released to "help out."
 
In short, it is a strong piece of evidence that the mink, and weasels, are
physiologically adapted to the California environment, and polecats are not.
While I believe the polecat could adapt itself through time (natural
selection and all), it would take thousands of years or longer.  In the
meantime, it has to fight off the mink to hold it's ground.  This is why in
areas where American mink has been introduced in Europe, it essentially
finds a niche and stays there, forcing the local species to lose ground.
And the ferret is to the polecat as the beagle is to the wolf.  Better yet,
think of Monty Python .... Can't you just imagine a pack of hungry red-eyed
wiener-dogs taking down a caribou?  ("With flapping ears, the ferocous
wiener-dog circles its prey, tiny legs stroking the ground, as it leaps for
the throat of the hapless caribou...")
 
This is an illustration of how the Ca Ca Fish and Gestapo fails to think
critically in their dealings with wildlife in California.  If a single one
of those mentally inept, anti-animal nazis would get off thier rotund
bi-cheeked brain and do a limited computer search on a mediocre library
server, they would find the absolute preponderence of evidence refutes all
their claims.  It reminds me of slave-owners in the south prior to the civil
war, arguing slavery is biblical and necessary for the USA to survive.  It
is absolutely pathetic and embarrassing to think people all over the world
are watching and judging us negatively because of some robotized lobotomized
neonazis who believe cavemen rode dinosaurs, and one was named Fred, can
subvert the constitution and play God over a domesticated animal.  Ooooo,
you are soooooo brave!  You arrested a tiny ferret!  You probably saved the
California Condor, hundreds of kangaroo rats, and the kit fox with that
single act.  Oooooooooo!  Ooops, a few bear and cougar poachers just got
away, but its ok, because you got that ferret!  I suggest two phosphate
enemas and a community college AA degree would solve this problem.
 
 -----
 
Susan E. Erdman, Phyllis J. Kanki, Frances M. Moore, Susan A. Brown, Thomas
A. Kawasaki, Keith W. Mikule, Karin U. Travers, Steven F. Badylak, and James
G. Fox.  "Clusters of lymphoma in ferrets." 1996 _Cancer Investigation_
Volume 14, Number 3, pages 225-230.
 
There has been a lot of discussion on the FML concerning cancers and other
diseases in ferrets, and the idea some people have that Marshall Farms
ferrets are prone to them at a higher rate than ferrets from other breeders.
I have been loud and occasionally blunt in my argument that what is needed
is research to find the causes of the problem, rather than blaming people or
breeders without evidence.
 
This is an excellent paper (I'm sure some of you recognized Susan Brown and
James Fox's names) and it does a good job of identifying patterns in the
incidence of lymphoma in ferrets.  They found that the patterns cannot be
explained by familial (breed) lines, or breeder origin (One exception was
Pandas, but two clusters had no ill pandas at all).  There paper goes into
depth on various factors, and indeed, investigated a number of possible
reasons for the clustering.
 
The end result of the study was the clustering of lymphomas in ferrets
follow the same pattern as seen caused by a virus.  This has medical
precident, cats and mink for example.  To say it again, these highly
esteemed scientists seriously think a virus may be behind the clustering of
lymphoma, and while they haven't found the virus yet (think how hard it has
been to isolate the HIV virus, much less the ECE virus), they are sure the
outbreaks are not associated with specific breeders or familial lines
(Pandas may be the exception, and the authors note correlations between coat
and illness in other animals).
 
If this paper is right, and no paper is gospel, then the FML reports could
also be right, but the supposed causitive agent be wrong.  MF ferrets may
indeed have a higher incidence of lymphomas than private breeders, but the
reason could be viral infections caught at warehouses, pet stores, or even
at ferret shelters, and the higher incidence just an epiphenomenon of the
higher numbers of MF ferrets sold.
 
This article should be a wake up call for all of us.  We need to investigate
the reasons rather than assuming a particular breeder is to blame.  This
isn't like the tobacco industry sweeping 50 years of science under the
carpet; this is an instance where ***no*** one knows, and unfair or
erroneous accusations and finger pointing may cause funding or other
research the dry up, and we may *never* know the truth.  It is ironic to
think those making the loudest complaints may be actually unknowingly
transmitting the virus to their own animals.  We need to know the *WHY* in
order to stop or cure the problem.
 
Don't misunderstand me.  I detest puppy/bird/ferret mills.  I think the
exploitation of the grayhound is criminal.  I strongly feel the early
neutering and descenting of ferrets to be horrible, and in conjunction with
early removal of kits, I feel the need to strongly condemn MF and other
large scale breeders who do the same.  I would be willing to participate in
a boycott of MF products, providing the boycott was specific to the issues
of nearly neutering/descenting, early weaning, and death retirement of
breeding stock.  But add issues of health, and I will never support it,
because the fears are unfair, ungrounded and suppositional.
 
Both of these articles (the previous post and this one) may be hard to find
if you do not have access to a major library.  They are typically subscribed
to by libraries servicing the medical or vet profession.  If you can't find
a source for them, send me a stamped (2 1st class should cover it)
self-addressed 8.5x11 envelope to my address posted below and I will copy
it/them and send it/them to you.  Warn me by e-mail first, if you don't
mind.  BTW, I will do this for any paper I discuss, but bear in mind I have
a life, and sometimes forget, so remind me with an e-mail, and send the
envelope.
 
Bob Church and the Missourian 18 (In memory of Gus)
POB 1988 Columbia MO 65205
[Posted in FML issue 1769]