I'll add my concerns to those of Bruce Levine, TLE, Roger McMillan and others regarding the deliberate exposure of ferrets to suspected ECE. One of the greatest problems with ECE is that the virus has not been well identified yet, and so there is no definitive way to say that one ferret currently has it, had it previously but recovered, is a carrier of the virus but is unaffected or has never been infected. Each of those scenarios might prompt the use of different precautions. I suspect that some of the existing genetic viral tests could determine whether ECE is really a coronavirus and be used as a diagnostic but it will be a few years before these are affordable. (Hoffmann-La Roche has a commercial genetics lab here in North Carolina that charges as much as $700 for [human] paternity testing.) So, there are ferrets out there with infectious diarrhea, some of which is ECE, probably causes by a coronavirus. BUT...not all diarrhea in ferrets is caused by ECE. It may be caused by many other viruses, by bacteria, such as the one that causes cholera in humans and pigs, by various parasites, by toxins or GI irritants, by stress or by diet changes. (The last three causes could appear to be contagious depending on the circumstances.) Pam Grant's observation may be correct. Indeed, her experiences suggest that the infection she has dealt with is easily tolerated by young ferrets. This is true of a number of human diseases, such as chickenpox, mumps, and polio, which have mild or no symptoms in infants or children but can be much more serious or even fatal in adults. Unfortunately, most of us have been using the term "ECE" to describe any infectious diarrhea, some of which *may* be caused by other pathogens. Other pathogens may react differently from the infection Pam has experienced. If, for example, an infection is equally hazardous to ferrets of any age, then exposing a young ferret to what is thought to be "ECE" could be disastrous. The bottom line is that we need a simple and relatively inexpensive way to diagnose or exclude *real* ECE. (That would also help us to verify how long ferrets shed the virus and whether they can become carriers.) Until such a test is developed, I would advocate caution in exposing kits to an infectious diarhhea unless you KNOW from experience that it is innocuous in kits. The "ECE" in your household may not be the same "ECE" Pam has dealt with. BTW, TLE asked about species specificity of coronavirus. A researcher at the University of North Carolina, where I'm at, has shown that coronavirus can jump species--from a mouse to a hamster in this case. This is a jump from one species to another within the same family. Theoretically, then, a coronavirus from dogs could jump to ferrets, although this is a bigger "leap" for the virus to make as ferrets and dogs are in the same order (carnivores) but in different families. Such cross-species jumps do happen, however. Sometimes it's a matter of getting a big enough dose to be infected as was the case with the Hanta ("four-corners") virus three years ago which crossed from mice to humans across two different orders (rodent to primate). Species specificity is mostly associated with the "docking site" the virus uses to get into cells in the body. Without knowing exactly what "ECE" is, it's impossible to speculate whether it is likely to be able to jump species. --Jeff Johnston ([log in to unmask]) [Posted in FML issue 1635]