Sukie Crandall commented a few days back that the New York Times had run an
article about a brain disease in minks that appeared to be transmitted from
contaminated feed.  Given that minks are in the same family as ferrets I
have been following this topic for some time in case there's any potential
risk to ferrets (or humans).
 
There has been a new development, however.  One of the NIH researchers who
initially investigated the outbreak of TME (transmissible mink
encephalopathy) reportedly now has CJD, the human equivalent of TME and Mad
Cow Disease.  Information about this is reportedly being channeled by
Congress, presumably because there are a lot of dairy and beef interests at
stake.  I will try to confirm this with other sources within NIH.
 
In the meantime, I would suggest to ferret owners that they feed their
ferrets only a poultry-based ferret food and avoid foods with lamb/mutton,
beef or pork or with blood or bone meal from those animals.  This is
probably good advice for humans, too.  If you ever wanted to give up red
meat, now is the time, although the risk is still remote in humans.  In
particular, stay away from bone or blood meal if you do gardening.  I figure
it will take a year or more for this to filter past all of the gate-keepers
who have an interest in quelling a national concern.  This is *not* a highly
contagious disease.  There are fewer than ten cases per million humans
annually, and I don't know that it's ever been reported in ferrets or other
pets.  However, there are a fair amount of rendered animal products in pet
food, and particularly in livestock feed.  It's probably occurring at a
higher rate in pets, but goes undiagnosed.  This risk is highest for any
animal fed rendered animal products.  I wouldn't invest in beef or dairy
industry stocks right now.  Expect to hear more about this on the national
media in the next year or so.  The Brits know what to expect...they've
already been through this.
 
BTW, Australia and New Zealand are the only places on earth that are
apparently free of CJD/BSE/TME/etc.  You can heave a sigh of relief that
this doesn't affect you at all.
 
--Jeff Johnston ([log in to unmask])
[Posted in FML issue 1874]