Rather to my surprise, I ended up on the phone with Pete Reid on Thursday
afternoon.  I'd gone looking for just an address but found a number, and
called it to get an address at which I could send a letter to Mr. Reid.
They gave me a phone number, which I called and again asked for an address
to send letters to, but they connected me through to Mr. Reid.  Yeep.
 
Anyway, we had rather a long and friendly conversation, the relevant Q & A
of which I will summarize (I was taking notes on 2"x2" post-its - they're
all over my desk).  An interesting point - he implied someone there's
reading the FML (Hi!) and expressed knowledge of recent discussions herein.
Note: these are MY summaries.  They're not even paraphrases.  I have done my
best to state the info he related to me as accurately as possible, but I am
not using his words.  If you have a question or sense that there may be a
misunderstanding, contact ME.  ME ME ME.
 
<methods of tracking MF ferrets>
Q: microchips:
A: As Pam Grant (and Ilena and others) pointed out, this is expensive and
time consuming - buying the chips, inserting them - the cost avgs out to
about $9/ferret.  This is the method they'd prefer to adopt, but the US
market won't absorb the cost.  HOWEVER, they're already microchipping
ferrets for certain markets (!!!), just not the US pet market due to
expense.  My note: believing that US pet buyers will fork out the extra $$
just to get a microchipped ferret is pretty naive.  I don't think they
would, and I don't think MF would microchip 'at cost' so the price hike
would probably be higher than $10/ferret.
 
Q: more elaborate tattooing system
A: Tattooing the webbing between toes is time-consuming and often difficult
to read.  More visible tattoos elicit complaints from owners.  Tattooing the
toe pads - he didn't know if this was viable or not, but was unable to say
if the toe pads of a 6wk old ferret are even big enough.
 
Q: tracking in general
A: MF really, really, really wants to devise a method of tracking their
ferrets.  If we can come up with anything cheap and effective, we're to let
him know. :)  MF does provide warranty cards that have an ID# on them that
can track the ferret batch down to the week (of birth?  leaving MF?  not
clear) but obviously pet stores muck this up, just as they muck up passing
out the literature MF sends along with their ferrets.
 
Sidenote: MF is producing a 16-18 pp book on ferret care to be passed out
(or sold?) with their ferrets.  They're looking at doing an informative
video on MF (not sure of content or audience) as well.
 
Q: long term health problem studies
A: The best method is probably to talk to a university that might be
interested in doing this, or a grad student who needs a project (good call,
bill k :).  Then, of course, funding issues and obtaining a random sample of
breeders' ferrets.  It didn't sound like a non-laboratory approach was going
to swing, BUT he didn't say specifically that MF wouldn't donate ferrets for
the purpose.  He more specifically said that he didn't know that other
breeders would be able to donate ferrets for that sort of thing, but having
other breeders' ferrets in there as well would be very important to the
results of such a study.
 
Sidenote: he said that MF's customer service has recently (didn't get a time
span) been receiving fewer calls on adrenal problems from people who are
feeding their ferrets MF food.  The cust.  svc calls are more cause &
effect, ie, my ferret ate this rubber boot, now it's sick.
 
Sidenote #2: MF has been involved in a program that donates retired breeders
to vet schools who then practice the spay/neuter operation on them and adopt
those breeders out.  One approach MF is (as I understand it) planning on
taking is working with vets and vet schools on ferret health education in
the future to ensure good ferret vet care.
 
Q: closed doors policy?
A: Some primary reasons: 1. Risk of tour participants getting nipped.
2. Ferrets' susceptibility to (specifically mentioned) upper respiratory
infections - ie, catching illnesses from tour participants. 3. ECE.
 
Sidenote: Tours ARE given to some people, but those folks have to pass
stringent guidelines before they get to go in - ie, no exposure (recent?
immediate?) to outside ferrets, no health problems of their own, etc.
 
Lastly, Mr. Reid himself owns ferrets.
 
The main point that came out of the conversation is that we (you, me, us,
our ferrets) should get together a proposal in writing and mail that to him.
They'll soon have someone addressing issues such as the ones we have, (new
hire, apparently) and while he can't promise any sort of action, MF's
wrestling with some of the same issues as we are.  (tracking their ferrets,
at least).  If we want to get into long-term health studies, his point is
valid.  Scientifically acceptable results - somehow finding causes for
things like adrenal disease, lymphosarcoma, insulinoma - are going to be
difficult to obtain in a scientifically valid way.  This, more than
anything, is what he is asking us to send to him in a proposal - ways that
we can approach figuring out the causes of these problems.
 
So, we'd need, first of all, someone to volunteer to do the studies, OR a
scientifically valid way to obtain results ourselves (next to impossible).
Second, funding.  Third, ferrets from many different breeders and farms.
Our questions, then: Are the main ferret diseases (insulinoma/adrenal/
lympho) genetic or due to environmental causes?  What are those causes?
 
This part, at least, is way beyond my scope.  But I think we can be (and
have been!) creative on the tracking and identification issue, and I think
we should package up the suggestions we've come up with so far and mail
those off to him for consideration.
 
Melissa
[Posted in FML issue 1991]