My Dear Sukie Crandall . . . Hello, I've not forgotten you from back ON Dec 30, when I posed the following. You have not answered any of my questions but I hope you will give me further consideration this date, the 5th of Jan. '09. ------------------------------------------------------ Hi Sukie Crandall, Edward Velcro Lipinski here with a question(s) for you, namely, 1.) Has ECE ever been inoculated into an otherwise certified healthy ferret OUTSIDE of a population of already infected ferrets?... ------------------------------------------------------ Below Dear Sukie is an excerpt from your wonderful posting of Dec 31, Issue No. 6199. I don't want to appear less than grateful for the paragraph below, but really, Dear Sukie, to me and to others on the FML, this paragraph is . . . well, I must say it, its a bunch of gobbilie-gook, clap-trap, obfucation and adds not a whit of an answer to any of my questions. Be that I abuse your sensitivity, I apologize for that. Believe me, Dear Sukie, I'd be most grateful if you could assume the role of a medical technical writer and translate the obscure vet/med citations and abstracts you cite down to the reading/comprehensive level of an 8th grader . . . you know, down to my lower level and perhaps to others' level as well. As you may already know, answers to questions nurture fertile minds to prompt new questions that are based on the answers to previous questions. Questions/answers . . . questions/answers. Is this not how we learn, at least some of us? ------------------------------------------------------ A novel coronavirus, designated as ferret enteric coronavirus (FECV), was identified in feces of domestic ferrets clinically diagnosed with epizootic catarrhal enteritis (ECE). Initially, partial sequences of the polymerase, spike, membrane protein, and nucleocapsid genes were generated using coronavirus consensus PCR assays. Subsequently, the complete sequences of the nucleocapsid gene and the last two open reading frames at the 3' terminus of the FECV genome were obtained. Phylogenetic analyses based on predicted partial amino acid sequences of the polymerase, spike, and membrane proteins, and full sequence of the nucleocapsid protein showed that FECV is genetically most closely related to group 1 coronaviruses. FECV is more similar to feline coronavirus, porcine transmissible gastroenteritis virus, and canine coronavirus than to porcine epidemic diarrhea virus and human coronavirus 229E. Molecular data presented in this study provide the first genetic evidence for a new coronavirus associated with clinical cases of ECE. ------------------------------------------------------ Edward Lipinski Suus cuique mos (Latin: Every one of us has his own peculiar way.) [Posted in FML 6206]