Dear Ferret Folks-
 
I was reading and came across a description of Bovine TB, just days after
our thread ended.  Well. it was HORRIFYING.  I went back and looked at
the old posts from last week to see if I had anything to add.  I do, but
it is pretty awful.  None of the old threads described what the disease
does.  The book I am reading does.  I send the info out for those who
are interested in such things.  If you are squeamish, SCROLL NOW.
 
This is a true story, a primatologists memoir of his time in Kenya. (A
Primate's Memoir, by Robert M. Sapolsky 2001.)
 
He lived near the traditional cattle herding people, the Masai, (in the
80's, 90's) and a number of "lodges", all inclusive hotels for foriegn
tourists who wanted to buy wildlife viewing packages, owned and operated
by foreign companies.
 
Well, the primatoligist's favourite troop of baboons got sick, very sick.
He darted some that were too weak to forage for themselves anymore, and
were just hanging out near one particular lodge's garbage dump.  These
animals were emaciated, missing fur, and coughing, sometimes coughing up
bloody foam.  Some of them had hands that had died from gangrene, but
were still attached.  He conducted an autopsy.
 
Inside, he found an abdominal cavity full of foul watery fluid.  (I did
warn you this was gross.)  Adhering to all of the internal organs were
shiny little hard black things that looked like watermelon seeds,
hundreds of them.  When he cut one open, he said it was "granular
powdery, lighter colored." p.279) They were even in the spinal cord,
and what was left of the lungs was full of them.
 
I will not go into his description of the lungs, except to say that he
used words like "milky", "oozing", and "melted." (p.279.)  He completely
freaked out, because this stuff splashed on him, and he had NO IDEA what
it was.  He brougt samples into Nairobi, where there were medical
facilities.
 
The disease agent was identified almost immediately as TB, because of
the presence of the hundreds of tubercuoles, those little hard black
watermelon seed-like things.  The microbiology lab pegged it as
Mycobacterium bovis, Bovine TB.
 
Apparently, the local Masai had learned an evil little trick.  They were
very skilled at detecting the early signs of TB in their cattle.  They
would bribe a Kenyan meat inspector to pass the sick cow, and sell it
to one of these lodges.  The cooks would butcher it, cutting out the
obviously infected parts full of tubercuoles.  The infected stuff went
into their dump, where the baboons would eat it.  The nicer looking parts
were cooked up and fed to the happy tourists.  Cooking it made it safe,
just disgusting.
 
Ecotourism, anyone?
 
Alexandra in MA
[Posted in FML issue 4784]