http://www.smithsonianmag.com/videos/category/ask-smithsonian/appendixcc-h264medmov/

Watch and listen to the video. Now, remember that ferrets lack an
appendix and you can see why depopulating too much of the bacteria
involved in digestion can mess with absorbing nutrients and perhaps
even lead to inflammation, just as having the wrong microbiome can.

The more that is learned the more it is realized that there still is
to investigate. In this instance the result of lacking an appendix
might be an increased vulnerability in ferrets.

[Posted in FML 8015]