Russ pointed out the excellent question of whether the abstract gives
the percent of lost kits or total kits.
Excellent question. I don't know.
Does anyone here have access to
J Zoo Wildl Med. 2007 Jun;38(2):169-76
to take a look?
If not, the author can be contacted since like with many studies there
is handy contact info.
Although I worded it badly my supposition was that the percentage
given meant that it was over half of the kits who were lost were lost
to gastrointestinal diseases until changes were made, rather than over
half of all kits born.
Russ's astute observation makes it obvious that assumptions wind up
causing people to miss things.
The reason I suspected that was because the number of kits seemed lower
than what I'd expect for half given what I think aI recall reading in
press releases of birth numbers in the past. On the other hand, though,
I do not know what the size of the breeding population at that specific
facility was in those years.
Still, that was a high number from such diseases so I am glad that has
been changed. Deaths from avoidable disease are especially tragic.
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/fhc/http://www.ferretcongress.org/http://www.trifl.org/index.shtmlhttp://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html
[Posted in FML 5696]
