>From:    Urban Fredriksson <[log in to unmask]>
>>AD can be carried and passed on by a ferret which does not develop the
>>disease.
 
>Not at all?  All I has heard is that it can take up to one year.
 
Aleutian Disease virus (ADV) is a parvovirus and is known to cause a
persistent viraemia in ferrets.  Some infected ferrets develop signs of
clinical illness such as degrees of ataxia or paralysis, weight loss,
respiratory symptoms, sudden death.  Transmission is both vertical
(trans-placental) and horizontal (saliva, blood, urine, faeces and
aerosol droplets through the lungs).
 
Ferrets giving a positive CIEP test should be regarded as potentially
infective to other ferrets, but will not necessarily develop symptoms of
illness themselves.
 
>>The only way to be sure that an AD positive ferret does not pass on the
>>disease is to cull it.
 
>Does it seem in practice like you also have to keep people who've been in
>contact with them away from other ferrets in order to prevent spreading
>the disease?
 
See above about transmission of the disease.
 
>Numbers (relative or absolute) of ferrets in England who've gotten
>infected?
 
1990 - 10.6% of ferrets tested were positive
1991 -   6.0%
1992 -   2.5%
1993 - 11.5%
1994 -  14.0%
1995 -  20.0%
1996 -  20.0%
1997 -  10.0%
 
[BT]
[Posted in FML issue 2747]