> In the Swedish literature, tumours are said to be much more common
> in American than European ferrets. Anybody have any idea why this
> is so (if it is)?
 
What you have to realize is that the ferrets in America come from
a relatively small gene pool.  There's a *LOT* if inbreeding.  Although
the major breeders have been trying to remedy this in the last few
years, for many years they had closed communities.  Although this
reduces the risk of bringing diseases into the breeding colony, it
doesn't take a mathematical genius to realize that pretty soon
everyone is related to everyone else.  Even in the show communities
there's only so many breeding animals, since breeding isn't the
easiest thing in the world only the most devoted breed.  The breeders
tend to breed with other ferrets in the general region, since they
"network" at the shows, and you just don't have time and funds to
travel all the way across the country to shows.  So there's a lot
of inbreeding that way (even though it's much more closely watched,
but still if you go back 10 generations or so...).  Although all the
good breeders I know keep track of this and never intentionally
inbreed, there was a long time when it wan't done, and we can't undo
what is already done.
 
This is starting to become more of an issue in the show communities
as well.  As a matter of fact, someone just imported two boy ferrets
from Europe.  She's renting them out to breeders for around $75 per,
er, "performance".  There's already a waiting list for these boys,
since we've been becoming acutely aware of the inbreeding problem,
since in the last few years people have been studying cancer and tumors
in ferrets, and the statistics are rather alarming.  So needless to
say, they are going to be two very happy (and tired) little boys come
spring.  ;-)
 
I would like to see the statistics for the Western U.S. versus the
Eastern U.S. as well.  I understand that there's a lot of polecat
in the ferrets out there, since they interbred them for their fur,
and unethical furriers would sell them to make a quick buck.
(Very often fitch were sold as ferrets, they look the same, but fitch
bear wild personalities and don't make good pets.  Hence a lot
of "ferret attacks" can be attributed to the fact that it wasn't
*really* a ferret!)  I'm curious to find out if that had any impact
on the bloodlines out there, and if it effected the cancer/tumor
rate.  (Obviously it would not effect the ferret farm ferrets
that were shipped out there, so that would be a difficult statistic
to get.)
 
Urban,  How about telling us how ferrets are kept in Sweden?  I
understand that ferrets are usually kept as indoor/outdoor pets
there, is that true?  If so, aren't there a lot of ferrets that
just "dissapear"?  Are indoor ferrets generally caged or allowed
to be house pets?  Are you involved in one of the clubs?  If so,
what's that like?  I'm sure that I'm not the only one interested,
which is why I'm asking this on the list.  You can probably tell
everything about the U.S.A and Canada just from conversations on
the list and Usenet, but if you have any questions I'm sure we
could all help out.
 
- Nancy
 
Nancy Hartman                     CIS graduate student
[log in to unmask]                  U. of Delaware
        President and founder, Delaware Valley Ferret Club
                      Owner of Percy & Bree
 
[Posted in FML issue 0377]