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. Now that most of the preliminary steps in the ADV research program have been completed, how will the research proceed? Naturally, what we all want to see is a vaccine that will protect our beloved ferrets from this disease. As I mentioned in an earlier part of this series, while not an impossible task, making a vaccine for ADV will not be easy. While most vaccines are made by creating antibodies for the disease they are targeting, with ADV this will not work, because the antibodies for ADV do not fight the virus. In fact, it is the antibodies that cause most of the damage to the ferret's organs. So, we do not want to inject ferrets with ADV antibodies that are produced naturally. As little as 10 years ago, it was thought that there could never be a vaccine for a disease like ADV. With newer technologies and increased understanding of DNA, things we once believed were impossible are now possible. But, they are also very expensive. One of the things I have heard mentioned is producing a vaccine using recombinant DNA technology. To be honest, I have very little understanding of exactly what this is, but I do know it is very expensive. I have no idea how much it will cost to create a vaccine for ADV, but I would not be at all surprised if the figure is $500,000.00 or greater. And, this is very likely a lot more then ferret lovers can contribute. This doesn't mean we shouldn't continue to contribute what we can to the effort. It just means it is time to start looking for corporate donors and other sources of funding. Large retail businesses, like PetCo and PETsMART are good places to start in looking for corporate donors. Additionally, the major ferret farms, like Path Valley, Triple F and Marshall Farms have a lot to gain if a vaccine for ADV can be made, and so they might be convinced to provide some funds too. So far, the large majority of the funds that have been used at UGA in the ADV research project have been donations from members of the ferret community. To date, there have not been any formal grants applied for, and no grant money received. There was an informal grant application submitted to the AFA Pamela Slack Memorial Fund, and several thousand dollars was awarded to UGA from that fund. Money was also given to the project from another UGA fund, because the University recognized that the work the team was doing was beneficial, and was also of interest to the public (the ferret community). There are both advantages and disadvantages to grant money. The process of preparing a grant application is a long and tedious task, and takes away from actual research time. It requires a lot of administrative work, and as a result, it is a standard practice at Universities for the Administration of the University to collect as much as 50% of the funds awarded. That means if the ADV research project received a grant for $100,000.00, they would actually only get $50,000.00 to use for the research. The other $50,000.00 would go to pay the salaries of secretaries and administrators of the University, for maintenance of buildings, and for utilities and similar items. So, the disadvantage to grants is that only half the money received actually goes to the research. The advantage to the grant process is that there is an action plan spelled out in great detail, and there are usually milestones during the project where progress on the project is measured. This can be good, because you can review how the money is being spent, and also be certain that things are moving in the right direction. But, this again can take a lot of time and effort away from the actual research. Still, it might be that the only way that enough money can be raised to actually begin work on the vaccine is through grant applications. And, of course, to apply for a grant there has to first be a fund that awards money for the type of research that is being pursued. Before the team at UGA can apply for a grant, they have to find one that will fund this type of research. They have to go through the process of putting the application together, and having it reviewed, and finally hope that they are awarded the grant. They are unlikely to go to the time and trouble to do all of this unless they feel that the public (the ferret community) really wants a vaccine for ADV. And, one of the best ways we can let them know we still want this is through our continuing donations to ADV research. Although colleges and universities are qualifying exempt organizations and considered to be non-profit, they do try to raise a great deal of money through donations to try to keep tuition costs down and to be able to attract the best professors and researchers with good salaries and benefits. Universities are very particular about how research money is spent. They want to fund projects that will not only teach students, but will also put the university in the spotlight. They want the projects to be of interest to the public, so the public will donate more money. They also want the research projects to be attractive to researchers, again to attract them to the school to do their work. For a university, donations of money to a project equal public interest in the work. We can hope that some of the corporations who make money from the sale of ferrets and ferret items will also decide that a vaccine for ADV is important. We might want to start a letter writing campaign, asking corporations like PetCo and PETsMART to consider making donations to the UGA ADV research. But the bottom line is, we need to let UGA know that a vaccine for ADV is both needed and wanted. Tomorrow I will talk about what happens after a vaccine is developed. -- 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 4909]