Latest news with #ferrets
RNZ News
03-07-2025
- General
- RNZ News
Conservationists concerned at hundreds more pests caught on Transmission Gully
Pest control work on Transmission Gully prior to it being finished. Photo: NZTA / Waka Kotahi Some conservationists are concerned about the potential impact of ferrets entering Wellington amid a significant rise in the number of pests being caught on Transmission Gully. Documents released under the Official Information Act show that between January 2024 to 14 April this year, 701 pests were trapped or killed on the road. That's up from RNZ's previous reports of 226 pests trapped between November 2022 and January 2024. The animals killed in the latest data set included stoats, weasels, deer, rabbits, rats, pigs and possums. Predator Free Wellington has been working for years to get rid of all pests in the capital. Project director Julian Wilcocks told RNZ there had been quite a lot more trapping done along Transmission Gully. But Wilcocks said it had also been a "bumper season" recently for mustelids which included animals such as stoats, ferrets and weasels. "That is a real massive concern because we don't have ferrets in Wellington City and so obviously, we want to really keep those from getting into the city." He said if ferrets got into the city it would be "dire straits" for their work. "Ferrets - they have a very high metabolism, so they need to eat a lot of protein which is often our native species." They also had huge roaming distances and were particularly damaging to kiwi, Wilcocks said. "It has taken us a number of years' effective methodologies for eliminating rats, stoats and weasels and so we wouldn't want to be adding ferrets to the mix." The furthest south a ferret has been found on the motorway was at Haywards in 2023. NZTA Waka Kotahi regional manager Mark Owen told RNZ $165,000 had been allocated for pest management on Transmission Gully for this financial year. Owen said the investment aligned with Greater Wellington Regional Council's pest management plan. "The plan dictates that NZTA/Waka Kotahi is responsible for controlling pests on road reserves that it occupies. "NZTA/Waka Kotahi also manages pest plants in accordance with this plan." He said that it followed best practice and focused on feral pigs, mustelids and deer. Predator Free Waikanae member Kevin Sheppard said his organisation had been trapping along the Kāpiti Expressway which linked up to Transmission Gully. Sheppard told RNZ the pests were quite lazy and would take the easiest route north and south. He said since they started trapping on the expressway 220 animals had been caught by the group. Sheppard said that while new roads such as Transmission Gully and the Kāpiti Expressway have been "an amazing addition" to the region, work needed to be done to continue trapping along the roads. "It obviously does simply create a pathway for animals such as stoats and ferrets to move along quickly." He said that there were likely gaps in the trapping network at least along Kāpiti Expressway. "We're trapping between Waikanae heading up to Peka Peka on one side, so there's nothing happening on the other side." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Telegraph
10-06-2025
- Health
- Telegraph
H5N1 bird flu ‘capable of airborne transmission'
H5N1 bird flu is capable of spreading through the air, a new animal study from the US Centres for Disease Control (CDC) has found. H5N1 was believed to spread primarily through direct contact with infected animals or their bodily fluids, but the new findings suggest it can also be transmitted through respiratory droplets and aerosol, raising concerns about its ability to cause a future pandemic. The study, published in Emerging Infectious Diseases, was based on a sample of H5N1 extracted from a dairy worker in Michigan who contracted the virus last year. The CDC scientists then used this sample to infect a group of ferrets, which are considered a 'gold standard' in flu research due to the similarity between their respiratory system and that of human. The infected animals were placed in close proximity to six other healthy ferrets and observed for three weeks. Within 21 days, three of the previously uninfected ferrets had contracted H5N1 – without any direct physical contact – indicating that the virus can travel through the air through a 'respiratory droplet transmission model'. The researchers also collected aerosol samples from the air surrounding the ferrets, and found infectious virus and viral RNA to be present, indicating that H5N1 can, like Covid-19, be transmitted through both respiratory droplets and aerosols – smaller particles that can travel longer distances and remain suspended in the air for extended periods. Respiratory droplets, on the other hand, are larger and do not travel as far in the air, requiring closer contact with an infected person for transmission. Since 2024, at least 70 people in the US have been infected with H5N1, the majority of them workers on poultry or dairy farms where the virus was present. Bird flu has spread to more than 1,000 dairy farms across the country over the past year and is now endemic among US cattle. 'This study is important as it provides yet more evidence that the H5N1 influenza virus that is circulating in dairy cattle in the USA is, in principle, capable of respiratory transmission,' Prof Ed Hutchinson, Professor of Molecular and Cellular Virology, MRC-University of Glasgow Centre for Virus Research told The Telegraph. '[The study] does this using experimental animals that experience and transmit influenza in similar ways to humans, so it warns us of what the virus could do in humans under the right circumstances,' Prof Hutchinson added. The study's authors warned that their findings underline the 'ongoing threat to public health' H5N1 poses, emphasising the need for 'continual surveillance and risk assessment… to prepare for the next influenza pandemic'. Most human cases reported in the US so far have resulted from direct physical contact with sick animals or their fluids, including cow's milk. But experts have warned that, as H5N1 continues to infect animal populations and 'jump' to humans, it is only a matter of time before the virus undergoes the mutations necessary to spread effectively from person to person. 'Because avian H5N1 viruses cross the species barrier and adapt to dairy cattle, each associated human infection presents further opportunity for mammal adaptation,' the study's authors said.
CBC
19-05-2025
- General
- CBC
She adopted 3 abandoned ferrets 5 years ago, wants former owner to know they were loved
Social Sharing Cassandra Fortier of Moose Jaw, Sask., said she couldn't imagine ever having to give up her pets — let alone without a way to find out where they ended up. It's what motivated her to write an open letter on the New Brunswick Reddit page to the former owner of three ferrets she adopted in the summer of 2020. "I just wanted that person to know what had happened, because it would eat me alive to wonder what had happened to them after I dropped them off that day," she said. But Fortier doesn't know who the past owner was or if the information reached them. That's because the ferrets were found on the porch of a Woodstock woman who was known for taking in cats in need. Fortier, who lived in Oromocto at the time, said the woman soon learned that the SPCA didn't take on ferrets. Instead, she was referred to the Ferret Lovers Society of Atlantic Canada, which is when Fortier, who had fostered ferrets in the past, was asked to take them. "I'm sure a lot of people are familiar with the term 'foster fail,' and that happened in fairly short order," said Fortier. Fortier named the ferrets Tia, Garth and Wayne — after Tia Carrere and the characters from Wayne's World. For the first two weeks, she had to dress in full personal protective equipment and take antiseptic showers to care for them while waiting for disease test results. WATCH | Pet owner explains why she thinks the ferrets came from a good home: Woman who cared for abandoned ferrets wants past owner to know they had a good life 3 hours ago Duration 1:30 Cassandra Fortier adopted three ferrets while living in New Brunswick in 2020. She cared for the animals, which had been left on someone's front step, for five years until they died. Now she wants the former owner to know they had a good life. Once they were cleared, the three ferrets settled in well with Fortier's other two. "A group of ferrets is called a business, so I liked to joke that I was a medium-sized business owner." Tia especially connected with Fortier's elderly ferret, Jimmy. Jimmy had insulinoma, a type of pancreatic tumour that causes the body to produce excessive amounts of insulin, which occurs commonly in ferrets. Fortier said ferrets are quite prone to several medical conditions, such as adrenal disease, lymphoma and chordoma — a spinal cancer. And while Fortier had a great vet in Fredericton, she said a lot of vets won't take on ferrets even though they require regular veterinary care. In the summer of 2021, Fortier said Tia also showed signs of insulinoma, but the surgery didn't improve her condition and she was euthanized that July. A year later, Garth also got insulinoma. From late summer 2022 until he was euthanized in February 2023, Fortier would use her coffee and lunch breaks at work to run home and manually empty his bladder. Garth was Fortier's only ever albino ferret, which meant he loved getting dirty. "I'd often take him out in the yard while I was gardening and he helped me plant a couple hundred tulip bulbs just by digging holes for me," she said. He loved to go to the garden centre in Lincoln and would "climb up on his hind legs and peer into the pots … while he thought I wasn't looking." Wayne was more of a playground guy. He loved to go down the slide, even though Fortier built him his own at home. She said he was also the most affectionate. After five years of living in Oromocto, Fortier accepted a job in Saskatchewan so she loaded up her hatchback with a five-gallon bucket with goldfish in the footwell, her cat on the heated seat next to her, and Wayne and her other ferret, Dewey, in the back. While living in the prairies, Wayne was diagnosed with chordoma on his neck, which meant he wasn't a candidate for surgery. A week before Wayne died, Dewey, who had lymphoma, had to be euthanized. Since ferrets are social animals, Fortier said Wayne quickly withdrew and his condition declined. On his last day before being euthanized, Fortier took him to a local park near the water where there wouldn't be anyone around to ask questions or want to pet him. "We just took some time to be together … enjoy the great outdoors and, you know, say goodbye." That was when Fortier wrote her open letter to the previous owner, similar to one she wrote after Garth died. Fortier said the ferrets were clean and affectionate and she can only assume they were well loved. "They ultimately ended up in a very loving home, you know, all of their needs were met, all of their wants were met, they were certainly very spoiled," she said. "After Wayne was put to sleep, I felt the need to sort of give that final update, and hope that the information reaches the original owner and that they're … confident that they had had a good life."
CBC
19-05-2025
- General
- CBC
Woman who cared for abandoned ferrets wants past owner to know they had a good life
Cassandra Fortier adopted three ferrets while living in New Brunswick in 2020. She cared for the animals, which had been left on someone's front step, for five years until they died. Now she wants the former owner to know they had a good life.
