Steph wrote: >Now I am not a geneticist, I am only using my experience from having >grown up with animals and simple common sense, So Sukkie please don't >jump on me, but lets put it this way. We wouldn't have our husband and >daughter have a child together just because they both have exceptionally >beautiful eyes, because we know that incest is not ethical and not >healthy, so why should it be acceptable with animals? LOL! Yeah, it really is one of my standard gripes that people emphasize looks over health, longevity and behavior too often, isn't it? The pandas and blazes might at times be Waardensburg but since so many also have body spotting many, perhaps most in ferrets are more likely to be one of the other neural crest syndrome causes : most likely what is known as the KIT oncogene. There could be a mix of neural crest genetic variants in more than one genetic location, though, so, yes, cumulative effects can be seen. Some neural crest genetic variants are ones from genes that seem to just affect the early fetal neural crest, but some effect an earlier grouping of cells, the cardiac neural crest, so if that happens in ferrets those individuals could be at an increased risk of heart problems. There are studies connecting an increased rate of cardiomyopathy to some of the neural crest markings in other mammals, especially increased rates of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (the harder one to spot which also can lead to a wasting syndrome in ferrets before treatment). KIT is an oncogene and oncogenes have increase malignancy rates in studies. Some other medical problems seen in these individuals include incomplete innervation of sections of intestine or other intestinal malformations, improperly formed jaws which do not open fully, deafness, etc. Angoras have been mentioned repeatedly in relation to litters too large for their health, size, and nursing demands, a range of skull malformations, and nostril malformations which can not only impede or prevent nose breathing, but can lead to serious infection. Some people who know some of the breeders of these ferrets refer to a number of kits being destroyed due to malformations. Some other variations that some breeders have bred over the years include at least two lines with early cataracts, and one line with acondroplastic dwarfs who had a lot of medical problems. There was a splotchy and strongly non-bilateraly coloration line that was entirely culled by sterilization once it was known that the markings (which were beautiful) also went with early death from circulatory problems. Aortic arch problems can be involved. Some lines have been culled by sterilization due to polydactyly, syndactyly, or both. (For an example -- a ferret Stephenie helped rescue and care for -- see http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth homepage and use the link for the photo album.) Looks should NOT be the first criterion when making a selection. That said, when we matched personalities of new-comers to our crew we wound up with two who have neural crest markings in our current crew. Both will have veterinary care adjustments made as a result, such as starting old age exams at a younger age. Response needs to be shaped to need. You'll be glad to know that MF at least didn't try for such appearances by breeding relatives. In fact, the popularity here of pandas and blazes was first pushed by some private breeders and by one mid-sized farm which even showed them off in a book. MF has line codes and the animals' location in the farm is based on that, so that when they select ferrets from separate buildings to mate anyone closely related doesn't mate. Originally they also would not breed the ones with the physical signs of neural crest genetic variants, but with too many people wanting panda and blaze headed ones, and splotchy ones (high demand from pet stores) just because of how they look they did breed those individuals for a while. I was told (last year or one or two years before that?) that they had gone back to only breeding ones with more standard markings, BUT there is a problem that neural crest variants (which sometimes don't overtly express themselves) are hard to reduce in a population once the proportion is increased so... There was a discussion on shifting proportions of such genetics I think last year on the FML so anyone who wants to see it can find it in the archives (address is in the header of every day's FML) and in past posts in Ferret-Genetics. [Posted in FML issue 4799]