Opps, somehow I accidently left off an abstract about one of the studies on things that can affect titer levels. I was trimming from some resources I found for someone in the past and trimmed a bit too much. >Vet Ther. 2005 Spring;6(1):43-56.Links >The role of supplementary dietary antioxidants on immune response in >puppies. >Khoo C, Cunnick J, Friesen K, Gross KL, Wedekind K, Jewell DE. >Hill's Pet Nutrition Inc, PO Box 1658, Topeka, KS 66601-1658, USA. > >The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of >supplementary antioxidants (AOX) and whey protein on the immune >function health of puppies. Four groups of 10 puppies were fed a >control and 3 different test foods (control + antioxidants (AOX), >control + AOX + 1% whey protein, and a grocery brand (low AOX)) for >6 weeks. A standard vaccination protocol with a combination canine >parvovirus (CPV) and distemper (CDV) vaccine was carried out at 2 >and 4 weeks. The results showed that animals on high AOX foods had >significantly increased titers, memory cells and serum E >concentrations compared to the control and groc groups respectively. > >PMID: 15906269 BTW, this is old but i just ran across it for what I think is the first time so it might help some ferrets: > J Pineal Res. 1996 Nov;21(4):214-7.Links >Melatonin reduces mortality from Aleutian disease in mink (Mustela >vison). >Ellis LC. >Department of Biology, Utah State University, Logan 84322-5305, USA. > >Aleutian disease (AD) results from a persistent parvoviral infection >that results in marked hypergammaglobulinemia and immune complex >mediated lesions of the kidney, liver, lungs and, arteries. Melatonin >protected both a wild type or demi strain and a demi/dark crossed >strain of mink from AD. The biogenic amine also afforded protection >against other non-diagnosed diseases naturally found on mink farms >when it was available from a subcutaneously-placed reservoir. Some >genetic strains of mink apparently differed in the resistance of mink >to the virus and in the protective ability of melatonin. The demi >strain was the most resistant followed by pastels, mahogany, darks, >and those strains with the double recessive Aleutian gene. The >protective action of melatonin appeared to result from melatonin's >ability to scavenge free radicals, but it could also be due to the >induction of antioxidant enzymes or to the modulation of immunity. >Melatonin also protected mink against distemper. > > PMID: 8989719 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/ http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/ http://www.ferretcongress.org/ http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html all ferret topics: http://listserv.ferretmailinglist.org/archives/ferret-search.html [Posted in FML 6413]