Dana, I think that the logical thing is to find out if there are any
medical tests now available which can show accurately if an exposure to
monkeypox has taken place.  If there is then USE IT and KEEP ANY RECORDS
OF CLEAN HEALTH HANDY, AND do NOT add or expose the rodent pets in
question to any others so that it can't be argued that a later exposure
may have occurred.
 
On Fox News in the tri-state area they had on a report last night about
two LI pet stores which might have had prairie dogs from that distributor
and what do you think they zoomed in on and showed?  You guessed it: a
painting of domestic ferrets.
 
THESE ARE IMPORTANT  for anyone with pets of any type or working in a
pet store to read:
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/monkeypox/petownerfacts.htm
   and
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/monkeypox/petshopownfacts.htm
At this point there is no indication that ferrets, dogs, cats, etc. are
at risk, but having the info and knowing what to do is important.  One
reason it is important that the info get out there is so that they will
know rapidly if anything else shows signs of vulnerability since this
IS a zoonotic (infecting humans as well as other animals) disease which
could have a wild reservoir if it gets into the wild rodent populations
of the U.S.
 
Steve and Cheryl will later send me an attachment which has some relevant
information and links and I'll pass those along to the Ferret Health List
and I guess they will pass them on the FML unless they ask me to do that.
Sit-down work during times when Chiclet is resting are best for me, so I
can get that stuff into useable form instead of an attachment in those
times.
[Steve and Cheryl's work is here -- good stuff:]
http://www.smartgroups.com/message/readmessage.cfm?gid=1423922
&messageid=5232&startid=5236
 
[Posted in FML issue 4202]