Received this today.  It's sad news for the ferret community.
 
>From: "Williams, Bruce H. Dr."
>Subject: AccuPath closing
>Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1999 09:27:28 -0400
>
>Sukie -
>
>Have some sad news for you to dissemnate to the FML and the doctor's
>net.
>
>Effective immediately, AccuPath will no longer be accepting cases for
>processing.  The lab that we have been working with since AccuPath
>began, American Histolabs of Gaithersburg, MD, has decided that in light
>of their new large contracts with NIH, they no longer can deliver cases
>to AccuPath, and prefers to ship cases in bulk by UPS each Friday.
>
>For AccuPath, that means that we can no longer offer reasonable turn
>around on cases, and a case may take up to 13 days between arriving at
>the lab and my being able to read it.  That is not the way that I have
>run AccuPath, nor would consider running it in the future, so I have
>decided to close the business.
>
>Colleen and I have enjoyed working with practitioners on difficult
>ferrets, and treasure the many friends and colleagues that we have met
>through AccuPath. I have no regrets - veterinary medicine (and
>pathology) has changed rapidly over the last ten years, with profit
>being the bottom line.  Perhaps the time for small friendly labs has
>come and gone.
>
>Of course, my main job as a pathologist at AFIP will contine, and I hope
>to use the extra time in the evenings to spend with Colleen and Connor,
>and maybe get to some of those articles which have been sitting on the
>shelf.
>
>All the best,
>
>Bruce Williams, DVM, DACVP
>Chairman, Department of Telemedicine
>Armed Forces Institute of Pathology
>Washington, DC 20306-6000
[Posted in FML issue 2777]