I exchanged emails with a vet friend of mine. Out of curiosity I asked if there are viruses, etc. a human can contract from a ferret. This is his response. Extremely unlikely -statistically and clinically- for ferrets to transmit anything to humans, despite the fact ferrets are so exquisitely sensitive to human cold viruses, influenza, etc. They typically dont pass such viral infections back to humans because the overall numbers of organisms they produce is not sufficient to overwhelm the immune systems of most healthy humans. That said, it is possible a human who is immune compromised might be at risk to pick up certain universal bacterial (e.g., Salmonella) or fungal (ringworm organisms) agents from a heavily infected ferret. Because of the small size of ferrets, this is more likely to happens with dogs or cats. It is a very rare event with those larger species.
Posted on: Wed, 09 Jul 2014 02:28:24 +0000
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