So, now let's talk about the possibility of American ferrets catching TB. You or your ferret cannot get TB unless exposed, so even though there are a lot of risk factors that increase the possibility of contracting disease, the only one that really counts is exposure. If you have every single risk factor and are not exposed, you will not get TB. You can do the math yourself, if a ferret is not exposed to active TB, then it has a risk factor of zero. What that means is that for a ferret to contract tuberculosis, it either has to consume TB infected food, or come into contact with a person or animal having active TB. I suppose you could add the risk of a ferret sniffing or tasting TB-infected spit on a sidewalk or dug out of a hankie, or something along those lines, but the chances are miniscule, and zero if you don't let them play in bloody spit. Since for the vast majority of Americans the source of chicken or beef for ferrets is the same as for people, the chance of a ferret contracting TB from their food is extremely low. We also know that in the USA (and Canada and the EU, etc.) that tuberculosis is monitored. The rules of monitoring are complex and exacting (you are invited to review the USDA regulations yourself; they gave me a headache), so I won't try to explain them here, but you should know that meat sold in the USA has to be shown to be TB free (there are a number of ways to prove it). Think about what happens when a little E. coli gets out-- it makes the national news! If TB were in the food, we sure as hell would know about it because it would be leading the 6 o'clock news. The only other food source of infection would be from dairy products. One of the common sources of TB infection during the early part of the 1900s was from consuming raw milk, a problem that doesn't exist with pasteurized milk. The truth is the chance of a ferret getting TB from raw food is next to zero. A ferret catching TB from an infected person is far more probable and shelters could actually face risks of tuberculosis from ferrets that were infected from previous owners. Or, if a person infected one pet and a ferret was housed with that animal, it is possible they could get TB. But, from eating raw food? Well, I can't say it is impossible. Think about this; the chance of a ferret contracting rabies is extremely small, yet in the last decade there have been scattered reports. I have searched government databases, Medline, and all science databases, and not a single confirmed report of a ferret catching TB from food has been made in the USA. In fact, try to find a single non-intentional case of a ferret infected with TB in the USA. It is possible I have missed a report; I didn't spend weeks searching for them. But even so, the chances of a ferret contracting TB in the USA from ANY source would be significantly LESS than a ferret contracting rabies. I worry, worry, worry about canine distemper; it is a nasty disease and no animal should suffer from it. So, I vaccinate once a year, and my worries evaporate. I worry about periodontal disease, which will make your ferret's life painful, knock down their strength and resistance, and then contribute to their death, so I brush their teeth and have them cleaned. I even worry about ADV even though I protect my ferrets from exposure religiously. The only worry I have about rabies is that a ferret will chew on someone and end up losing their head over it. My worry about tuberculosis? It isn't even in my mind, even when my ferrets eat raw meat, which they do every single day. Bob C [log in to unmask] [Posted in FML issue 4651]