Cryptococcus gattii -- which is very rare outside "the tropics"
according to news articles -- has affected a handful of people and
animals in the NW in the last decade or so, but it has been in the
news recently with mentions that it can infect ferrets so for those
who overly worry about the unusual here is the relevant abstract:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/17370514
which does NOT mention ferrets.
There is an abstract of an Australian form of Cryptococcus which
ferrets have gotten but it does NOT say which species is involved,
but mentions a few ferrets with Cryptococcus:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19306217
though THIS
http://ecmm.eu/node/46
says that the origin of the species had been suggested to be Australia
but may instead be northern South America (an area dear to my heart
since I worked in the jungles of Suriname in 1978):
>Other researchers concluded that this outbreak was caused by a same-
>sex mating between two Australian low virulent C.gattii strains. We
>have used a plethora of molecular tools to prove this hypothesis, but
>came to the conclusion that not Australia but most likely the warm
>environment of Northern South America is the cradle of this outbreak.
(Before Wolfy teasingly blames me I haven't even visited the Pacific
Northwest yet though Steve would like us to live there if we can at
some point and we do have a number of friends there.)
Sukie (not a vet)
Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/http://ferrethealth.org/archive/http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.htmlhttp://www.miamiferret.org/http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/http://www.ferretcongress.org/http://www.trifl.org/index.shtmlhttp://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
all ferret topics:
http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html
"All hail the procrastinators for they shall rule the world tomorrow."
(2010, Steve Crandall)
[Posted in FML 6768]
