You may have seen some of Cathy and Sharon's posts on the FML reminding you about the opportunity to donate funds to ferret research. The IFC will be presenting two research checks this year at the 2011 Symposium in Phoenix. One check will be presented to Dr. Matti Kiupel who is a researcher at the Ferret Health Advancement Center at Michigan University. He works with quite a team of researchers and collaborates with some of our great ferret vets like Doc Murray, Williams and Gardner. You might say Dr. Kiupel gets right into the guts of it all. He likes to study the viruses; coronas, rotas; "ucky" things like Coccidiosis, ECE, and also, ADV and DIM. These "conditions and bugs " seem to require ongoing study to learn more about each, but also because some mutate. You can read more about this team at http://www.ferrethealth.msu.edu/Personnel.php Doc Wagner's recent research is quite popular with the invent of the Deslorelin implant.The Des Implant study is on going, the GnRH vaccine study is also ongoing, (a vaccine for the prevention and treatment of ACD.) He completed his Canine Distemper Virus vaccine titer study. (Ferrets do not appear to need to be vaccinated against CDV yearly.) The Deslorelin study continues to collect data, although Dr. Wagner has published initial findings in that study in the summer (July /August) 2009 Journal of Exotic Vet Medicine. According to Dr. Wagner, the GnRH (adrenal vaccine) study and the titer study are written up in the Volume 6 Proceedings of the AFA "A Comprehensive Veterinary Symposium" Advanced Course "Management of the Ferret" (for Veterinary Professionals) Conference in Blackburg, Virginia. Copies are available to anyone who wishes to purchase one from the AFA store at http://www.ferret.org/shopping/education.html Cost is $35.00. Doc Wagner has three more projects he is working on or gearing up to work on for ferrets that need funding. They include; further test development for hypothyroid testing in ferrets (apparently there are too many fat ferrets out there), Evaluating Thymidine Kinase (TK) activity in ferrets with known lymphosarcoma (LSA) with different types or clinical stages and compare to known healthy ferrets, and more work on insulinoma. Arginine Stiumation testing with a given protocol which should be useful in confirming a diagnosis of Insulinoma in ferrets. Continuous Glucose Monitoring (CGM) implants are expensive but would be an excellent method of testing ferret's to determine glucose curves in insulinomic and normal ferrets. The IFC will match donations collected up to a total of $1500! Please make checks payable to the International Ferret Congress (IFC) and mail to: Sharon Bearden, IFC 1245 Curtis Switch Rd Mineral Bluff, GA 30559 Or you can use Paypal and pay to [log in to unmask] Please note how you would like your donation to be applied. Also, please include how you would like your listing on the donors' page to appear. You can have either your name, a family member or friend listed, or the name of a beloved furkid or human listed as a memorial to him or her. Although donations will be accepted until May 30, the deadline to receive a listing in the program is April 30. Eleanor, Donald and teh 10 ferrets [Posted in FML 7044]