Some responses to posts from a few days back... Linda Doran asked about acquiring rabies in caves. It's not especially common but cavers have gotten rabies from breathing in aerosolized bat droppings contaminated with rabies. This is probably the worst route through which to acquire rabies since the virus would infect the olfactory nerve and travel quickly to the brain. There's a very good chance the post- exposure prophylaxis would *not* have enough time to work in such a case. Cavers who explore caves with large bat colonies should consider receiving the rabies vaccine. JodyLee Estrada Duek responded to Michael Curry's mystery illness by suggesting that he investigate any sprays, fertilizers, hormones, chemicals, illegal dumping, groundwater contamination and nuclear waste. Did I leave anything out? Gosh. Let's not go overboard here. All of the exposures Jody Lee mentioned can cause illness in some settings, but not all of them can cause the symptoms Michael mentioned or produce the pattern of illness he described. With most of the environmental exposures Jody Lee mentioned, *all* of Michael's ferrets (and Michael himself) would have become ill. Moreover, most environmental hazards that result in illness take weeks or longer to develop, not the rapid deterioration seen in his kits. >Any genetic or infectious disease (unless *incredibly* virulent) would >cause deaths over many hours or days. That's almost certainly true of genetic defects (I could find an exception, but it's essentially correct). However, bacteria and viruses can act amazingly fast or take a lifetime to show effects. And the virulent ones are not necessarily rare. Lots of nasty bugs are out there waiting for the right conditions so they can pounce. (Do you know you probably have Legionnella--the cause of Legionnaire's disease--in your shower head or air conditioner right now?) Remember, too, that ferrets are stoic little guys and often don't show the effects of an illness until they are very ill. In such a case, a ferret could appear to have a rapidly fatal illness when it has actually been simmering for days or longer. The Minamata tragedy that Jody Lee mentioned was due to industrial mercury poisoning. Mercury toxicity is agonizingly slow, and causes symptoms very unlike those David described. The symptoms he describes in Australia closely fit the pattern of an infectious agent, one to which the adult ferrets had already been exposed in the past. Regarding pigment cells and health problems, Bruce Williams wrote that in color-diluted ferrets, part of the associated problems (deafness, blindness) is due to the failure of pigment cells (melanocytes) to migrate to the proper place during embryologic development. Maybe someone else is into developmental embryology and can clarify this. (OK, let's not see the same hands as last time... ;) Most albinos lack color because they have a defect in the gene for an enzyme called tyrosinase, which is upstream in the chemical pathway leading to melanin production. However, I haven't seen any mention of whether true albinism causes the pigment cells to migrate any differently compared with the effect seen in blazes, pandas, and DEWs. In other words, do albinos have all of the same problems as blazes/pandas/DEWs? (I realize that albinos do have eye problems and many do go blind eventually, but I've haven't heard of true albinism associated with deafness.) Then again, if albinos do experience problems with peregrinating pigment cells, then I wonder if color-dilution could be associated with neurologic problems since there are melanocytes in the brain, too. Hmmm, curious stuff. --Jeff Johnston ([log in to unmask]) [Posted in FML issue 1677]