Helga-
This sounds improbable if not impossible. ADV would not as a normal rule
appear and kill five days post-exposure. It seems that ferrets are living
several YEARS post exposure to ADV!
As many FML'ers know, Yvonne DeCarlo and I have split the Fuzztek shelter
into two parts. Her home is a sanctuary for lifetime care of ADV infected
ferrets, while my home continues to operate as a "normal" shelter. We do
a few things differently now though. Any ferret who comes in is tested
for ADV. They are kept in strict quarantine with a separate play area,
separate litter scoops, cages, pans, everything. We only handle these
ferrets after we are done with our personal and regular shelter ferrets.
After we have the results of the testing, if they are positive they will be
sent to Yvonnes, and any areas they have had any possible contact with will
be sanitized with Synphenol-3. Otherwise they will finish their 10 day
quarantine and then be added to the ferret room. Now, how does this relate
to ADV and MF? Yvonne and I have now tested over 100 ferrets. NO cases
of ADV have been found in MF ferrets except for ones that were obviously
infected by cagemates who were from a breeders with known cases of ADV!
Now, I am NOT a big fan of MF. But, I will say that their ferrets are
generally great pets with great temperments. And they don't seem to have a
problem with ADV. As Marshall's is a "closed colony", in that they don't
have visitors, don't buy new breeding stock from all over the place, etc.,
the chances of them having an ADV problem is pretty small. As they are the
primary institutional breeder and supplier of laboratory ferrets in the
US, which is a large business unit for them, they are rightfully concerned
about the quality of the health of their animals for the short term. (I
am going to stop short here, as this is NOT an animal rights post.)
This brings me to another note, how the ferrets get from MF to the pet
stores. In most areas, there are animal wholesalers who buy large lots of
animals from institutional breeders and distribute them to the pet stores.
Many of these wholesalers have less than satisfactory conditions, with a
variety of animals confined together in one small space. Many of these
wholesalers will purchase stock from more than one place. So a given
wholesaler might have a cage of ferrets containing ferrets from MF, Path,
and any number of smaller insitutional breeders who "sell to pet stores".
Yvonne and I have been able to track one "mystery case" of ADV back through
pet store, distributor and then back to the breeder, who was from the
central part of the US. So as you can see, that one ferret could have in
fact infected dozens of others from the time it left the breeder until the
time it arrived in it's new families home. I would advise people who are
going to purcahse a ferret at a pet store to first think of adopting from a
shelter :-) OK, if you want to buy from a pet store, I would advise you to
ask the MANAGER of the store if the ferrets come directly from MF, or if
they come through a distributor. If they are directly from MF, you are
pretty safe. Otherwise, you might want to steer clear. You might even
want to call MF to verify.
By the same token, if you are adopting from a shelter or buying from a
breeder, you might want to ask for proof of ADV status. Remember, ferrets
younger than 4 months don't have reliable test results, instead ask to see
the Sire and Dam's results. I also urge all breeders who offer stud
service to offer proof of their results on the hob, and require proof of
the Jill's results before breeding the pair.
When you bring a new ferret into the house, no matter WHERE it is from, you
should ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS quarantine it from your existing ferrets for
5-10 days. This is particularly true if the existing ferrets are mature
and the new ferret is young.
ADV should not cause a panic, but it should also not be taken lightly.
With proper precautions and common sense, it can pretty easily be avoided.
Anne
[Posted in FML issue 3015]
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