>From:    Julie Dowdy <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Question: About ECE's `virus' status
>I have some questions for the Medically Knowledgeable people on the
>list.  8)
 
Well I'm a lay person with some understanding - if I mis state something
someone else will be sure to correct it...
 
>ECE is or is not a virus?
 
By all indications ECE is indeed caused by a virus.  There are lots of
virii that have not been fully isolated but when they act the way a virus
acts - and don't act the ways a virus doesn't - its most likely a virus.
Technically ECE is a disease caused by a virus.  ECE is not the virus
itself just as Aids is a disease caused by the HIV virus (though that is
redundant...)
 
>For instance, in Modern Ferret, is identified as "suspected to be a
>viral infection" and then referred to as a virus the rest of the article.
 
Imagine how much harder it would be to read "very viral like pathogen"
instead of "virus" through out an article.  THe chances that ECE is not a
viral disease are so remote that calling it a virus is very very safe.
 
>Or is that usually what happens with virus/disease's in their pre
>identification stage?
 
Yes, Kind of... ECE has been identified as a disease that certainly does
appear to be viral but the specific virus has not been isolated.  That
isolation is very hard and very expensive sometimes.  So far nobody has
ponied up the money.
 
>Also, I read here that it can't be tested for because the "virus" causing
>it hasn't been isolated?
 
No test has been developed that can identify specifically any specific
virus that hasn't been identified nor any other compound left over from the
virus's being present.  Again - nobody has paid the expenses to develop
such a test.
 
>The only thing I know of that I can compare that to is HIV in its earliest
>incarnations before it was named HIV.
 
That is a good comparison actually.  Millions of dollars were spent in
several countries before that virus was found.  And even now the tests for
HIV presence have too high a number of false positives.  A huge budget
has been devoted to HIV research that doesn't exist for a rather mild in
comparison intestinal bug for ferrets.  Aids has approximately 100%
morbidity of people while ECE has approximately 5% morbidity for ferrets.
Just not serious enough for people with the money to kick in the huge
amounts needed for "quick" results.  Hopefully we'll get them eventually
on the extremely low to non-existant budgets existing now.
 
>If you can't test for it, how do you know how it is transmitted?
 
Its not so hard.  You can use lab tests to show whether the virus can
transmit through the air by having ferrets seperated but in the same room.
If no other transmission media is present (such as exchanging bedding or by
having 'dirty' human contact between the cages) and the disease shows up in
the non-infected ferret - then it passed through the air.  If a infected
ferret is removed from a cage and a well ferret put into that cage gets the
disease than the virus can survive in the environment - how long the delay
before the well ferret gets put in the cage can show how long the virus can
survive out of the host.  (At least 6 months for ECE based on testing)
 
>What makes it so difficult to isolate a virus?
 
These really are extremely tiny - most microscpes aren't nearly powerful
enough to see a virus.  The ones that are come with really big price tags.
And when you examine a tissue sample the amount of mass of the virii is
probably really really small in comparision to everything else so its like
flying around in an airplane with a very small telescope that show just the
smallest little bit of the ground and then you look for say a particular
baseball laying somewhere in the state but no one has told you even what
county to look in.
 
>Does it evolve and mutate like flu and cold viruses?
 
Probably.  But maybe not as much.  Someone else probably can give a better
idea on the rate of mutation for corona virii.
 
Okay a lay persons explanation... Some facts are muchly over simplified...
 
- bill the science guy - (okay so I'm not that good, I know)
--
bill and diane killian
zen and the art of ferrets
http://www.zenferret.com/
mailto:[log in to unmask]
[Posted in FML issue 2653]