Hi, Dick! Long time! Ferrets and cats get the bird flu complete with the more serious problem it comes with: cyokine storms. Feral and farm dogs in Indonesia have had antibodies so they may have the potential to be silent carriers, or perhaps those were just the survivors. The best thing will be to keep all pet animals inside, and probably to keep one's shoes outside when bird flu appears here, too, since guano is under study for a possible route to infection. (I am waiting to hear more about that.) Certainly, handling infected birds is a route to infection. At this point there is not casual infection. When there are vaccines the manufacturing capacity is low enough that there won't be enough vaccines for people, UNLESS two things happen. The first is having it take many years before casual infection occurs (and it might because there are two ways the virus needs to modify for that, but then again it could happen any day...), and the second would be to have the general influenza vaccine under study actually pan out because if memory serves that is not one which needs to be grown in eggs. It will be cool if that works because it seems at this point in study (still early days) to tackle multiple strains of influenza so there would not be problem of figuring out which strain is the one that gets the bad mutations and then playing catch-up (which would introduce a currently estimated 6 month lag). There are currently something like 28 vaccines under development worldwide to reduce the lag risk -- opps, no, found a news article from yesterday: 31 with 22 of them for the H5N1 strains. One of the vaccines passed a small human test hurtle as per yesterday's announcement but it is one that requires 2 vaccinations for immunity which would further reduce the numbers who can get it. There has also been pre-existing research on minimizing cytokine storms (the immune system over-response that is so dangerous, the same reason the flu in the late 19-teens killed disproportionately large large numbers of young people because their immune systems responded too strongly), and I am sure that area of research is expanding. Furthermore, there has been research going on into delivery mechanisms, finding that for some other types of vaccines smaller amounts can be used with a rare injection technique that most people don't learn which puts the vaccine between skin layers, and finding that nasal vaccine might be the way to go (but it will depend on what vaccine(s) ultimately work since nasal vaccine seems to offer earlier protection in infection than traditional injection in some past studies of different vaccines, and some recent studies have increased the range of people for whom it can be considered safe and effective. Currently, avoiding things that could lead to exposure is the way to go. I sent some past posts to the FML w updates over time and a lot more info. --- Now, adrenal disease info is a lot more easily come by for those who look for it. Recommended: the articles by Dr. Deborah Kemmerer Cottrell and the ones by Mike Janke at miamiferret.org/fhc (Link in my addy.) and ones on Lupron Depot, melatonin, deslorelin/Suprelorin Depot (currently experimental status only in the U.S. but the application was made for approval by the USDA) in the FHL archives and FML archives. The first is in my addy and the second is in the header of each day's FML. Usually I place the FML Archives first when here since like all but one of us I am guest here in Bill's list, but the FHL has more info on these, I think, so I placed it first this time, though I know I sent a post on the topic to the FML on the 26th which you may want to seek out, and here are some links from a post I sent just 2 days before that: > http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/adrenal.htm > http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/24hr_lupron.htm > (why to not use the 24 Lupron) > http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/melatonin.htm to start off. > Some complications info you hopefully won't need: > http://ferrethealth.org/archive/browse.php?msg=SG15827 > http://ferrethealth.org/archive/browse.php?msg=SG5436 > http://ferrethealth.org/archive/browse.php?msg=SG2049 -- Sukie (not a vet, and not speaking for any of the below in my private posts) Recommended health resources to help ferrets and the people who love them: Ferret Health List http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth FHL Archives http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ AFIP Ferret Pathology http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html Miamiferrets http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/ International Ferret Congress Critical References http://www.ferretcongress.org [Posted in FML issue 5240]