Permission to cross post the following information to other lists is granted, as long as the post is taken in it entirety, with out any changes or additions. In Parts 3 and 4 of this series, I spoke mostly about what has happened over the last few years. Today I want to talk about what is happening in the present. Right before the Ferret Symposium in St. Louis started, I received a call from Kate Pennick. She wanted to let me know that her paper on her ADV research had been accepted for publication in a peer review journal. For anyone that missed it earlier, the paper is being published in the "Journal of Veterinary Diagnostic Investigation". This is a bi-monthly publication, and she is not sure if it will appear in the September or the November issue. When I find out which issue, I will pass the information along, so people can let their vets know to look for it. While we were on the phone, we also chatted about the research in general, and what was currently happening. Kate mentioned that while things had been pretty quiet for several years, since mid March of this year the pace had suddenly picked up quite a bit, primarily because of 2 things. The first was because PETsMART had contacted the team at UGA about setting up testing procedures for the breeding colonies that will supply the kits they will be selling. Apparently PETsMART already had a working relationship with Dr. Ritchie, because of his knowledge and experience in treating avian diseases. Since they were already familiar with Dr. Ritchie, and knew his group was also looking at ADV, I guess it was logical they would turn to them to help set up the testing. Now, this is very good news. Right now, many of the farms that supply ferret kits to pet stores do not do any kind of ADV testing. Where I live, in the Mid Atlantic region, we have had problems with ferret kits being sold from some pet stores already infected with ADV. PETsMART will be setting a new precedent by requiring the breeders who supply them with kits to test their breeding colony. And, since they handle the transportation of the kits from the breeders to the stores, there will be no chance of exposure along the way. We can hope that with PETsMART testing for ADV, some of the other suppliers of ferret kits (the farms), the distributors, and the retailers who sell them will follow the example. Testing needs to be done at the ferret farms, and on the ferrets used for breeding purposes. Most of the tests we have commercially available are not accurate on very young kits. Kits generally need to be between 4 to 6 months of age before you can rely on a test result being accurate. This is because the commercially available tests are all antibody tests, and it takes the kits' bodies a while to build up sufficient antibody levels for them to be detected by the tests. However, if the ferrets used in the breeding are tested, and are negative, then there is little chance of exposure to the disease at the farm. And, if distributors follow good sanitation procedures, and only handle kits from farms that test, then there will be less chance of exposure while the kits are on their way to the stores. It would be really great if we had some assurance that kits sold in pet stores were most likely not carrying ADV Because PETsMART will be paying UGA for the testing services, this will also be money coming into the program. While the amount the University charges for the testing they do really only covers the cost of running the tests, it means that donations we make to ADV Research will not be used to pay for testing of ferrets. The second thing that Kate told me about was a bit of a bad news/good news item. To provide a little background, in several of the southeastern states, domestic skunks are very popular as pets. There are several large breeding farms in GA and AL. There are also some national skunk fancier organizations that put on shows, much like the AFA ferret shows. There are large annual skunk shows in Orlando, FL, and in Atlanta, GA, as well as some smaller shows in other cities in the southeast. Through the Internet, I have gotten to know several people that have both skunks and ferrets, and I have always asked them about the possibility of ADV crossing from one to the other. However, they have all always assured me that skunks do not get ADV. While I thought this might be another case of just not testing for ADV, and so not really knowing if the skunks could get ADV, I was not in a position to argue with them. Apparently, one of the skunk farms in GA recently started having problems with their breeders getting a mystery disease, and in some cases dying. The vet that treated the farm skunks was stumped by this mystery disease, and because UGA has an excellent exotic animal veterinary program and an excellent wildlife veterinary program, Dr. Ritchie's team was contacted and asked to look at tissue and blood samples to see if they could find what the cause was. Most of you have probably already guessed that what they found was that the skunks had ADV. The reason I say this is a good news/bad news situation is this. It is naturally bad for the skunks and the skunk fanciers. It might prove good for the ADV research program, because there is now another companion animal that is affected by ADV. There will now be more people wanting the research done, and a vaccine found. This could equate to more people donating money to help fund the research. But, it might also prove to be a hindrance to finding a vaccine for ferrets, because the skunk ADV is likely a separate strain, and so it may (but not necessarily) require a separate vaccine. When I spoke with Kate, she was busy with meetings with the skunk breeders and was going to be getting more blood and tissue samples. One of the things she said she would likely do soon was compare the DNA from the skunk ADV with the DNA from the ferret ADV, to verify whether or not they were the same. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to ask her how it was presenting in the skunks, so I donut know if the symptoms are similar to what we see in ferrets or not. In my next post I will talk about where we go from here. -- 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 4908]