[2-part post combined.  BIG]
 
Early in 1999 a very good friend of mine bought two kits from me.  My
placing standards are rigid and she overqualified.  This friend would
often come here and stay overnight with her ferrets, for shows.  When
this ADV situation came to light, many of us started testing.  My friend
did as well.  All ferrets tested were negative.
 
My friend takes in rescues.  One of my points was that for a $12 test, you
may be saving yourself a lot of grief and money in the long run.  My friend
agreed, but the heartstrings would tug and caution would go to the wind.
It was making me very nervous.  This led to us having several "discussions"
on the subject.  Each rescue was a different set of circumstances, with a
different reasoning on my friend's part.  Some of these reasons:
1. had gotten ferrets from this particular person/pet store before, that
   tested neg.
2. After rescuing etc. they were very healthy looking.
3. They had been to the vet for adrenal or other surgery so they would
   know.
4. the person they were aquired from had them since kits and did not show
   or take them any place with other ferrets.
5. I tested before and they were neg.
6. It is not in my area, I am too far removed from it.
 
I decided to wait a couple of months until breeding/showing season started
and then test ferrets again.  I particularly wanted to test those that had
been in close proximity with my friend's, those that were to be shown and
those that I wanted to breed.  Another breeder that was using one of my
hobs tested also.  We were negative and posted the results.  Unknown to us
at the time, my friend was testing also.  When I got a message asking me to
call it was important, I did not think much of it.  I work in a veterinary
hospital, and we often discussed sick ferrets.  I was totally unprepared
for this discussion.........ferrets had been tested and a weak positive was
found.  Now ALL the ferrets had to be tested at a cost of several hundred
dollars.  There were 8 more positives, which now included the two from
here.  I cannot even describe the feeling of devastation.  If any of the
above are reasons you have given yourself, think again.
 
Owning a pet is a privledge not a necessity.  Showing and/or breeding
pets is a luxury.  Both are a responsibility.  If you plan on taking your
pets around others, you have the responsibility of making sure that they
do not have anything that could risk the health of others.  You have a
responsibility to your own pet to do all you possibly can to make sure it
does not contract anything.  If you can afford to show.....that means
proper vaccinations, sometimes teeth scaling, show entries, hotel room,
meals, GAS, spending money, time off work.........surely you could afford
10 per ferret to assure it's safety as well as the safety of others.  I
don't see how you can afford not to.  Compared to the cost of veterinary
care should they become sick, $10-12 is relatively minor.  Whether done
at home or at the show, should it be mandatory?  Yes!  It should have been
years ago and we might not be having this discussion.  I may be wrong but I
don't know of any disease that has just "gone away" without some help, ie:
cure or eradicating the cause.
 
Why mandatory testing?
 
Several years ago, when the ECE epidemic was sweeping the East Coast, my
ferrets were hit with it.  We came home from a show and exactly 4 days
later it started.  Two were days away from dying when I decided to
experiment with Tylan.  Thank God, it worked.  We started using this at our
hospital.  A client came in with two ferrets with ECE.  She was warned not
to allow her ferrets near others.  She said the ferrets were pets and never
went out.  The tylan worked , and the ferrets recovered.  Imagine my shock
when I went to the show and saw this client wandering through the show with
her daughter and the two ferrets, less than two weeks after being in our
office with ECE.  She had seen a poster on our bulletin board and decided
to check it out.  One ferret was hanging over her shoulder nose to nose
with another ferret.  The other was running around on the floor on a leash
they had bought at the show.  I went over and explained that she had to
take the ferrets home and why.  She just assumed that since the diarrhea
had stopped they were no longer contagious.  I never gave the poster a
thought, or that she might take her ferrets and decide to go to the
show....... This was compeletely naive on her part, outwardly the ferrets
looked healthy, but still a danger to all there.  At this same show I saw
a sign.....kits for sale, ECE free..........
 
As hard is it is for people connected to the internet to imagine there are
people out there without computers.  We take the number of lists and other
information resources for granted.  There are many people out there that
still do not know about ADV, including vets.  Still others who have nothing
to go on but rumors.  Shows are not only fun, but are a necessary tool if
we hope to educate people and raise funds.  We DO need to have research
done on how it is spread so that we can end all the speculation and move
on to finding a cure.  But to do this we need money.
 
Many people think it will never affect them so why bother?  I am sure that
is what people thought years ago, and so here we are.  No one was seeing
it clinically.  How do we know that for sure?  How many vets were truly
interested in ferrets?  Or knowledgeable?  How many unexplained deaths were
necropsied and tested for ADV?  How many ferrets that died of the "usual"
ferret diseases were necropsied and also tested for ADV?  There has been
much speculation recently as to why ferrets seem less healthy today than
years ago.  Why there is more suseptability to disease, and shorter
lifespans... Genetics?  Environmental?  Diet?  Husbandry?  What if it was
the introduction of ADV?  Over the years could it have caused gradual
weakening of the immune system?  As with AIDS, it is not the disease itself
which kills, but other diseases the body can no longer fight off.
 
No test is 100%, or a GUARANTEE of safety, but then neither is any vaccine.
More like 92%, I think.  Should we stop requiring distemper vaccinations?
Or rabies?  ADV is a silent killer that can be spread by perfectly healthy
looking ferrets and the only way to determine if a ferret is positive is by
testing.  Not by how it looks, or where you got it, or who it may or may
not have been around.  The testing is the only tool we have right now to
try make shows as safe as possible.
[Posted in FML issue 3425]