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]