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Ferrets and Tb

Ferrets may be more of a problem than initially thought in spreading tuberculosis, according to work by AgResearch and Otago University.

PhD student Justine Ragg has been carrying out a survey throughout Otago and Southland to find the level of Tb infection in feral predators. So far, she's trapped a total of 1,286 ferrets, stoats, and cats looking for visible signs of Tb lesions. Almost 18% of the ferrets caught in Tb-endemic areas (and two-thirds of them on one property!) had visible signs of infection compared with just 1% of cats and 2.3% of stoats.

The big question is whether the ferrets are actually transmitting Tb, or are "dead-end" hosts and are not spreading it to other animals. Researchers suspect ferrets may be transmitting Tb, but say further studies are vital.

"It may be that ferrets are an 'indicator species which verify the presence of Tb in a particular area. However the high prevalence of Tb infection implies ferrets may be helping spread the disease. We need to know a lot more about the animals," says Ragg.