The International Ferret Congress and Support Our Shelters are pleased
to announce a new fund designed to help shelters on the SOS Shelter List
with the costs of ADV Testing.  Both of these organizations have long
recognized the need for such a fund, and now, by working together, will
be able to offer it.
 
Ferret shelters may be more at risk for getting ADV, because many
ferrets come into them with little or no medical history.  And because,
hopefully, the shelters will be able to place the ferrets they get into
forever homes, if they do get an ADV positive ferret into the shelter and
do not test, they are also at risk of spreading this terrible disease.
Therefore, it is very important for all shelters to test all ferrets
that come through their doors.  However, testing is expensive, and most
shelters have very limited funds.
 
It is the hope of both the IFC and SOS that the Shelter ADV Test Fund
will lessen some of that financial burden on the shelters, freeing up
some of their money for other necessary care expenses of their charges.
 
While not all of the details have been worked out, the fund is starting
with a $2,000.00 donation from the IFC and a $1,000.00 donation from
SOS.  Members of the ferret community can help with the fund by
contributing money through either the IFC or SOS to this fund.  We will
also be holding fundraisers for it in the future.
 
The first phase of the program will be to purchase a large quantity of
Avecon Quick Chek test kits, and make them available to shelters for the
purpose of testing incoming and resident ferrets at a very reduced cost -
below what the fund is paying for them.
 
In the second phase of the implementation of the fund, we will be setting
up accounts with both Avecon and United, and will be covering the cost of
tests that are run on the shelter ferrets by those 2 labs.  Again, there
will be a charge to the shelter for this, but it will be less than the
actual cost of the test.  With this phase, the shelters will be
responsible for any charges incurred in obtaining the samples and
shipping them to the labs, but the fund will cover the testing fee from
the labs.  When the U of GA has their ELISA test ready for market, we
will also try to set up something with them.
 
It is the hope of both the IFC and SOS that by making ADV testing more
affordable, more shelters will start testing.  We feel that all ferrets
and ferret owners will benefit from this fund in the long run, because
as ferrets with ADV are identified and kept separate from the general
ferret population, any spread of the disease will decrease.
 
--
Danee
International Ferret Congress Health Issues Coordinator
http://ferretcongress.org
ADV - If your ferret hasn't been tested, you don't know!
For more information visit: http://www.ferretadv.com
You can help fight ADV! Visit:
http://help4adv.terrabox.com/
[Posted in FML issue 4897]