I usually try to avoid posting twice but I saw Edward Lipinski's post about ferrets contracting or transmitting HIV. I guess I'm about as close to an expert on HIV research as anyone who posts on the FML. I don't work with the virus itself, but the guys in the lab on the floor above me do and I do lots of epidemiologic research on HIV in humans. I'll state this as clearly as possible: In no way can ferrets be infected with or transmit human immunodeficiency virus. HIV is strictly a primate-specific illness. Apes (including humans) and monkeys can be infected with it, but with the exception of a single chimpanzee, only humans develop AIDS from HIV infection. I'd be happy to describe the specificity of HIV glycoproteins for CD4 and CC-CKR5 binding sites on human macrophages and helper T-cells if that would have any meaning to anyone. Suffice it to say that it took years and lots of effort just to develop a mouse model for HIV infection and the only way to do that is to destroy the mouse's bone marrow and replace it with human bone marrow so that it has human blood cells and a human immune system. Researchers tried to find an animal that could develop AIDS after HIV infection. The bottom line is that only primates can be infected and of all the primates, only humans develop AIDS due to HIV infection. Ferrets can *not* carry or transmit HIV. Period. One more comment...to Eddie Palacios, whose friends' neighbors told him he would have to get rid of his ferrets and cat while his wife is pregnant. I'm sure your friends mean well, but they're probably uninformed about the risks of infectious disease transmission from pets to women during pregnancy. Presumably your friends' neighbors have heard that the parasite toxoplasmosis can be transmitted from infected cats. This can only happen if your wife has never been exposed to toxo before and happens to be infected for the first time during her pregnancy. If you wife *has* been exposed before--most people who have ever had cats as pets have been), she almost certainly has antibodies to toxoplasmosis and her immunity will protect the baby from getting infected. You have two choices. (1) Get your wife's obstetrician to find out if your wife has a protective level of antibodies to toxoplasmosis, or, better yet (2) *you* can change the litter and wash the cage until the baby is born. Keep your ferrets. Educate your friends. --Jeff Johnston [Posted in FML issue 1826]