After the heated discussion regarding whether certain breeding practices causes ferrets to have a higher incidence of cancer, I did a search on lymphoma in ferrets and discovered that there is reasonable evidence that this cancer is associated with a transmissible factor, presumably a virus. The following paper has the details: Erdman SE, et al. Transmission of a chronic lymphoproliferative syndrome in ferrets. Laboratory Investigation 1995 May;72(5):539-46 Has anyone come across this hypothesis before? There are other papers on the topic, but the paper by Erdman et al. has the experimental evidence to back it up. One of the other papers also mentions a review of cancers in black-footed ferrets and minks, and says cancers are common in animals allowed to live out their natural lifespan. So far, I only have the lit search to go by, but I'll try to find the papers at the medical library soon. This may change things quite a bit. Let's assume for a moment that ferrets had a longer lifespan a decade or more ago. (This is still anecdotal evidence so I neither believe or disbelieve, but for the sake of argument...) Perhaps the perceived increase in lymphoma is due to the fact that ferrets are being exposed to a transforming virus (one that induces cancers). Any time large numbers of ferrets are brought together in one place, the chance increases for transmission of all sorts of things. *If* a virus is the cause of lympho in ferrets, it's necessary to determine what kind of virus before anyone can start speculating how it's transmitted or how to prevent transmission. So, no wild accusations that breeders or ferret shows or shelters or ferret clubs help spread a new mystery virus. Until the purported virus is identified, all finger-pointing is baseless. Nonetheless, this is worth considering. BTW, there was no mention about adrenocortical tumors in the abstracts from these papers. When I track down the whole papers I will look to see if there's any mention of those or in BFFs or minks. I wonder if I've opened up a whole new can of worms? --Jefv Johnston ([log in to unmask]) [Posted in FML issue 1704]