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Add ferrets to the H1N1 caution parade
By Gina Spadafori
November 11, 2009
Just the facts. Stay calm. Don’t panic.
Oregon’s public-health veterinarian has confirmed that three more ferrets have caught swine flu from the their owners. From the Oregon VMA site:
Two of the three ferrets presented with fevers (temperature above 103 F), sneezing, coughing and had nasal discharge. Not all ferrets became ill at the same time, but 2 – 3 days after the initial 2 cases. Nasal discharge samples were collected on October 27, 2009 and were later reported as positive for Influenza A.
Further testing at the National Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory confirmed the isolates as pandemic influenza H1N1. The other ferrets were not tested, but it is believed they may have had the virus as well. All nine ferrets have recovered.
The first documented case of the H1N1 virus in a ferret was in a Portland, Oregon ferret early October.
Look, don’t flip out and don’t encourage others to, either. Just take good sensible precautions such as hand-washing, etc., which you should be doing anyway. And if I may also add, once again, that there are snake-oil salesfolks trying to sell you “prevention” and “cures” both for people and pets.
Don’t even bother opening the e-mail or clicking on those links.
The AVMA is doing a good job staying on top of this story. Keep an eye on their information page for further details.
By the way, I’m not surprised this was reported in Oregon. I’m sure it’s happening elsewhere, but not being recognized or reported. But as we remember from the pet-food recall, Oregon’s public health veterinarian, Dr. Emilio DeBess, is absolutely top-notch — courageous and honest in the fulfillment of his duties to the public.
I wonder if we could get him to be head of the FDA?
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I am uncertain why the public is surprised. Ferrets were, after all, used to develop at least one version of the novel H1N1 vaccine.
Comment by Rinalia — November 11, 2009 @ 10:57 am
Ferrets were, after all, used to develop at least one version of the novel H1N1 vaccine.
Comment by Rinalia — November 11, 2009
Seriously … you believe that to be common knowledge? On what planet?
Comment by Gina Spadafori — November 11, 2009 @ 11:02 am
I didn’t know about it in Ferrets. I wonder if it is going to show up in dogs?
Comment by Snoopys Friend — November 11, 2009 @ 11:15 am
Gina, anyone with the ability to use google would discover the third entry for “ferret + h1n1” is, you know, that crazy, obscure study involving ferrets and novel H1N1.
You are right about the craziness of my assertion, though. I clearly gave too much credit to the masses - I should have known better.
Comment by Rinalia — November 11, 2009 @ 1:51 pm
Rinalia, why, exactly, do you think that the average person, even the average ferret owner, would have been googling “ferret + h1n1” before they were made aware that ferrets could get H1N1? What would have prompted them to do so?
Comment by Lis — November 11, 2009 @ 4:14 pm
Kim and I were having a discussion yesterday about all the stuff we sometimes figure everyone who has a pet knows.
Except, they don’t know.
As my late father was fond of saying, “Never assume. It makes an ASS our of U and Me.”
Comment by Gina Spadafori — November 11, 2009 @ 4:38 pm
Comment by Lis — November 11, 2009 @ 4:14 pm
<i<why, exactly, do you think that the average person, even the average ferret owner, would have been googling “ferret + h1n1” before they were made aware that ferrets could get H1N1? What would have prompted them to do so?
I actually saw it mentioned in passing (that ferrets were one of the animals to have gotten H1N1 from a human) in one of the articles I read on the human-to-cat-transmission case. Not being a ferret owner, I wasn’t interested enough to follow it any further. But it actually IS out there in some rather easily-accessible reads.
Comment by The OTHER Pat — November 11, 2009 @ 5:30 pm
Messed up the coding on that previous entry. The first paragraph was the quote from Lis.
Comment by The OTHER Pat — November 11, 2009 @ 5:31 pm
Lis, you’re right. Why would they?
I found out about it because I read articles when the novel H1N1 vaccine came out - many of those articles pointed out that the vaccine arose out of studies done with ferrets. It stuck in my mind because it was interesting and I was unfamiliar with why ferrets were commonly used in virus studies. Obviously most people either don’t remember that or didn’t read the articles. And yeah, why would they? People have plenty of crap to worry about, nevermind remembering ferret studies from a month ago (seriously, I get that attention span for apparently non-pertinent info is short).
I still think no one should be surprised. But! My leap to WHY no one should be surprised was clearly irrational, all things considered.
Gina, my response was in kind to your snarky ‘tude. Vicious cycle, I guess.
Comment by Rinalia — November 11, 2009 @ 5:35 pm
I actually saw it mentioned in passing (that ferrets were one of the animals to have gotten H1N1 from a human) in one of the articles I read on the human-to-cat-transmission case. Not being a ferret owner, I wasn’t interested enough to follow it any further. But it actually IS out there in some rather easily-accessible reads.
But that was within the past week. It’s what people were reacting to with the surprise that Rinalia thought was inappropriate because, after all, she already knew.
But not everyone—not even all that many people, outside of the medical field—are all that interested in the hows-and-whys of vaccines, to have read the material Rinalia read, before the news came out that two ferrets had gotten H1N1 from humans, and died of it. (Which Rinalia has now realized, and this is not intended as a bash at Rinalia—just a response to The OTHER Pat.)
(Although I don’t understand why Rinalia still thinks no one should have been surprised. If you weren’t previously aware of the information, why is it surprising that you’d be surprised?)
Comment by Lis — November 11, 2009 @ 7:29 pm
Lis, the reason I don’t think anyone should be surprised is because everything researched about the H1N1 virus indicated it was a zoonotic virus. Being a novel virus AND zoonotic…it just does not seem like an obvious leap to suggest it would continue to spread to other species.
Comment by Rinalia — November 12, 2009 @ 10:07 am
Rinalia, the average reasonably intelligent, reasonably educated person may or may not have encountered the word “zoonotic.”
Most of our seasonal flu viruses have at least passed through an animal host somewhere along the line in the process of becoming this year’s seasonal flu.
Most years, we don’t need to worry about our dogs and cats getting the flu from us.
Your thesis seems a bit thin.
Comment by Lis — November 12, 2009 @ 10:44 am
Point of reference: Our editors/producers across various media platforms always make us explain the term “zoonotic” because they are certain the majority of people do not know what it means.
Our editors/producers are always right. :)
Comment by Gina Spadafori — November 12, 2009 @ 10:46 am
My friend Paula is actually quietly freaking out about H1N1 and ferrets, mainly because she’s the zookeeper in charge of the black footed ferrets at the Toronto Zoo. I had no idea that this was such an issue with ferrets, until she’d told me how insanely vulnerable they are to all forms of influenza.
At any rate, o/t, but the first captive raised Black Footed Ferrets were just released into the wild. Paula was there for the release, and it’s a really amazing accomplishment. Story here. Rinalia has probably read it already, of course.
Comment by FrogDogz — November 12, 2009 @ 4:59 pm
Lis, I was unaware I needed to bestow upon this great earth a treatise on lack of societal surprise over H1N1. :) It’s an opinion I have. We know how common those are and that one doesn’t need a hypothesis to formulate them. Obviously my opinion rubs some folk the wrong way.
Novel H1N1 is not like most seasonal flu viruses…hopefully everyone isn’t shocked by that. ;)
Gina, fair enough. Zoonosis - diseases transmissible between species. The masses have now been enlightened.
Comment by Rinalia — November 12, 2009 @ 6:42 pm
Rinalia, no one is infringing your free speech rights by disagreeing with you.
You happily use terms familiar to all of us who have worked in the medical or veterinary field, or in the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, or written about science as journalists, or who have just developed a deep passionate interest in it, with absolutely no awareness of the fact that these terms and concepts play no role in how most people—most intelligent, educated people—think about flu, whether seasonal or H1N1.
To the average intelligent person, who does not have a particular interest in this subject, the first association the word “novel” has is a work of fiction. But even its second, third, and fourth associations have nothing to do with medical issues.
You’re not getting anywhere near the mindset of the average intelligent person on this. Honest to God, most people don’t know anything about the flu sensitivity of ferrets, aren’t talking about “novel H1N1” when they talk about the two different flu viruses going around this year, and do not have your depth of knowledge about how and why they’re different.
And, maybe even more shocking, most people don’t have pet ferrets, and even if they have other pets, and even if they are closely following health-related news for issues of concern to the pets they do have, they’re going to slide right by the stuff on ferrets.
You’re mistaking your particular personal interests for the interests and concerns of the average, non-ferret-owning, no-medical-background general public.
Comment by Lis — November 12, 2009 @ 7:56 pm
I think we’ve now pretty much exhausted all the possibilities here for what most people can be assumed to know beforehand about H1N1 and ferrets. Can we move on now? Moderator No. 1 is grumpy and heading for bed, and Moderator No. 2 is off enjoying a few well-deserved days off-line in Seattle.
MN1 does not want to see more discussion on this in the morning. ktnx and goodnight. :)
Comment by Gina Spadafori — November 12, 2009 @ 8:05 pm
Oregon cat has died of H1N1. :(
http://vetmedicine.about.com/b.....m-h1n1.htm
Comment by Christie Keith — November 18, 2009 @ 2:30 pm
Maybe adding dogs to the parade soon?
http://www.avma.org/public_hea.....efault.asp
“November 28, 2009
Xinhua (Chinese press) has reported that dogs have tested positive for 2009 H1N1 influenza. At this time, the only information we have is that “two samples from sick dogs were tested positive for the virus.” To date, there have not been any confirmed cases of dogs infected with 2009 H1N1 influenza. We will update this page as we receive more information. Read the media report on Xinhuanet.”
Comment by Carol V — November 30, 2009 @ 9:00 am
I am recovering from the H1n1 virus. It has been almost 14 days and I’m still weak and having trouble breathing. I am a healthy 54 year old woman. the virus killed all 6 of my ferrets in the last week. All died from the same symptoms, resulting in severe difficulty breathing and chills. This virus is lethal to ferrets - please let everyone know who owns a ferret. Thank you.
Comment by Sue — December 25, 2009 @ 3:03 pm
Oh Sue, I’m so sorry for your loss. How heartbreaking.
Comment by The OTHER Pat — December 25, 2009 @ 7:17 pm
Sue, let me add my words to Pat’s. What a horrible loss. I’m so sorry.
Comment by Gina Spadafori — December 26, 2009 @ 7:41 am