As many of you are aware, some of the ferrets from the Utah Rescue may have been exposed to ADV while in transit to a shelter in Florida. This is a very sad situation, indeed. My purpose in writing this is not to blame or point any fingers. Although I do not know all the details, I assume that the possible ADV exposure was not discovered until after the fact. I have the greatest respect for the people that were helping with this rescue, and their intentions. My purpose is to again urge everyone to test your ferrets for ADV. Until a ferret is tested, you can not know whether or not it has ADV. Ferrets should not be transported across the country, or even across town until their ADV status is known. Ferrets should not be taken into homes where other ferrets live unless the ADV status of all ferrets involved is known. Right now, the only way to stop this disease is to find the animals that are positive, and restrict their contact to ferrets that are not positive. I am not trying to create a panic, just to get everyone to act responsibly. If you think your ferrets are safe because ADV is not in the area where you live, think again. ADV is out there, and if there are no positive ferrets reported in your part of the country, it is probably because no one has tested, or because the ones that have positive ferrets have not spoken up. Many people that have positive ferrets prefer to not make public statements, and as long as they take precautions so they do not infect other people's ferrets, that is fine. There is no excuse for not testing. You no longer have to have your vet do the test. Ferrets can now be tested without drawing blood. There are options for collecting the sample yourself and sending it in for testing, and even test kits so you can run the test at home. If you have a large number of ferrets, the cost of testing is not cheap, but it is a lot cheaper then the cost of having infected ferrets. Shelters that take in ferrets without knowing their ADV status are playing with fire. All shelters should begin a rigorous testing program, and use the Quicktest on all incoming ferrets before letting them into the shelter. We can not afford for our fragile ferret shelter network to collapse due to exposure. Everyone, please, take this seriously. TEST YOUR FERRETS. Thank you. Danee DeVore [Posted in FML issue 3548]