Kim was upset about my reminder, though I heard from people in Denmark itself that the advice I gave (which was from news stories and the CDC info site) was exactly what their own media, public health officials, physicians and vets are telling them to do now until the source of the massive salmonella outbreak if found (with their own authorities saying that they have narrowed to an animal-origin food source for this particular outbreak, which is why I sent it). Bill Gruber, FML Moderator, added: >Moderator's note: Whatever the postion on raw feeding vs a commercial >diet, I encourage anyone learning of a potential recall of EITHER to >alert us. BIG And I am sure that he and others will remember that I have posted each applicable recall that I have encountered and where to find the info, whether kibble, treat, materials for made at home food, and shortly before the international news had the Danish salmonellosis story I even put in a water recall. For salmonella cooking is typically sufficient, which is also true for some other forms of food poisoning that ferrets can get. For some others, like the worst strain of E. coli it is best to just toss the stuff and feed it to no one. That disease can cause permanent kidney damage in ferrets, and certainly has killed both domestic ferrets and BFFs. Salmonella, on the other hand is something that ferrets usually fight off well, but if a person wants to read how hard it is to treat when it really takes off in a ferret pick up vet texts or read some of the vet descriptions in the FML and FHL Archives. The second (most recent) edition of _Biology and Diseases of the Ferret_ is particularly frank on that score. As i have said before: not food choice is perfect and none is horrible as long as the ferrets get a balanced diet, and that can be done in more than one way, but what IS important is knowing what can go wrong so that the person can jump fast enough when that happens. With kibble that means dental wear and perhaps a carbohydrate contribution to the future formation of insulinoma, though that remains a hypothesis. For raw feeding that means knowing that sometimes disease can occur. Even in her short 2 or 3 (4?) years with ferrets Kim has found out that possibility exists -- though luckily it is rare: http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL1904 http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL1911 http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL1924 http://ferrethealth.org/archive/FHL1960 and she also has experienced what was treat as insulinoma in an adopted adult ferret, though that ferret lived only a very short while (2 months?) which makes me wonder if pathology afterward would have instead found either carcinoma (the worst for the pancreas) or lymphoma (second worst for the pancreas) there instead of insulinoma. There were quite a lot (okay, really a LOT) of pers coms she and I had through those, too. I recall a LOT of times that I was awake in hours when I normally would have been sleeping because she needed immediate help and reassurance. So, if I take a little bit of offense at being scolded by someone I gave all that time to for my saying no more than what I've been told the Danish vets themselves are saying, then perhaps that can be understood and pardoned. 'Nuff said on that score. Bill, if anyone writes to "defend" me (as opposed to sending in hard info on how to avoid and treat disease) could you thank them for me but mention that can lead to unneeded FML fights, something I don't want to happen. There is a new beef recall in the U.S. for a risk of the worst strain of E. coli that I somehow missed getting (lost in the ether) which someone else passed on to me after reading my post. For some reason that one didn't arrive here as an alert: <http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/Recall_022_2008_Expanded/index.asp> Those who want to get such alerts -- about everything from beef to bottled water to kibble can sign up at the FDA site to get alerts: <http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/Recall_022_2008_Expanded/index.asp> Oh, shoot, and going there I spot another beef one I didn't get yet (also the worst E. coli strain): <http://www.fsis.usda.gov/News_&_Events/R01_2008_Expanded/index.asp> It just pays to know what can go wrong with any type of choice in life so that a person can jump fast enough to minimize problems, and to stay up on the related news. Right now in Denmark that includes the health professionals for humans and critters advising cooking of meats, poultry, etc. till they can find where that nasty strain of salmonella is coming from. When they have figured it out then people can safely return to earlier choices. Sukie (not a vet) Recommended ferret health links: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/ http://ferrethealth.org/archive/ http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/ http://www.ferretcongress.org/ http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html [Posted in FML 6023]