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This study was conceived to detect skin mites in social mammals through real-time qPCR, and to estimate taxonomic Demodex and further Prostigmata mite relationships in different host species by comparing sequences from two genes: mitochondrial 16S rRNA and nuclear 18S rRNA. We determined the mite prevalence in the hair follicles of marmots (13%) and bats (17%). The high prevalence found in marmots and bats by sampling only one site on the body may indicate that mites are common inhabitants of their skin. Since we found three different mites (Neuchelacheles sp, Myobia sp and Penthaleus sp) in three bat species (Miotis yumanensis, Miotis californicus and Corynorhinus townsendii) and two different mites (both inferred to be members of the Prostigmata order) in one marmot species (Marmota flaviventris), we tentatively concluded that these skin mites 1) cannot be assigned to the same genus based only on a common host, and 2) seem to evolve according to the specific habitat and/or specific hair and sebaceous gland of the mammalian host. Moreover, two M. yumanensis bats harbored identical Neuchelacheles mites, indicating the possibility of interspecific cross-infection within a colony. However, some skin mites species are less restricted by host species than previously thought. Specifically, Demodex canis seems to be more transmissible across species than other skin mites. D. canis have been found mostly in dogs but also in cats and captive bats. In addition, we report the first case of D. canis infestation in a domestic ferret (Mustela putorius). All these mammalian hosts are related to human activities, and D. canis evolution may be a consequence of this relationship. The monophyletic Demodex clade showing closely related dog and human Demodex sequences also supports this likely hypothesis.

Canine distemper is a highly contagious viral disease in carnivores and represents a serious threat for both wild and domestic animals. The aim of our study was to monitor the occurrence of the canine distemper virus in wildlife from the Czech Republic, reveal the H gene heterogeneity in positive samples and perform subsequent phylogenetic analysis. In total, 412 wild animals of 10 species were included in the study: 219 red foxes (Vulpes vulpes), 79 European badgers (Meles meles), 47 European otters (Lutra lutra), 40 stone martens (Martes foina), 10 pine martens (M. martes), 7 raccoons (Procyon lotor), 5 undetermined martens (Martes sp.), 2 wolves (Canis lupus), 1 European polecat (Mustela putorius), 1 free-ranging ferret (Mustela putorius furo), and 1 free-ranging American mink (Neovison vison). Most animals were found dead or were killed by hunters during hunting seasons in the years 2012–2020 and came from all 14 regions of the Czech Republic. In the animals that were hunted, symptoms such as apathy, loss of shyness or disorientation were reported. Canine distemper virus (CDV) was detected by real-time RT-PCR in the tissues of 74 (18%) of the animals, including 62 (28%) red foxes, 4 (10%) stone martens, 3 (43%) raccoons, 2 (20%) pine martens, 2 (2.5%) European badgers and 1 (20%) undetermined marten. There was a statistical difference in positivity among animal species (p < 0.0001), regions (p = 0.0057), and the years of sampling (p = 0.0005). To determine the genetic characteristics of circulating variants of CDV in wildlife, 23 of 74 CDV variants were partially sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis showed that 21 variants belonged to the European lineage and two strains belonged to the European-Wildlife lineage. This study provides the first comprehensive overview of the prevalence and spatial distribution of CDV in wildlife in the Czech Republic, including molecular phylogenetic analysis of currently circulating CDV lineages.

Domestication and breeding for human‐desired morphological traits can reduce population genetic diversity via founder events and artificial selection, resulting in inbreeding depression and genetic disorders. The ferret (Mustela putorius furo) was domesticated from European polecats (M. putorius), transported to multiple continents, and has been artificially selected for several traits. The ferret is now a common pet, a laboratory model organism, and feral ferrets can impact native biodiversity. We hypothesized global ferret trade resulted in distinct international genetic clusters and that ferrets transported to other continents would have lower genetic diversity than ferrets from Europe because of extreme founder events and no hybridization with wild polecats or genetically diverse ferrets. To assess these hypotheses, we genotyped 765 ferrets at 31 microsatellites from 11 countries among the continents of North America, Europe, and Australia and estimated population structure and genetic diversity. Fifteen M. putorius were genotyped for comparison. Our study indicated ferrets exhibit geographically distinct clusters and highlights the low genetic variation in certain countries. Australian and North American clusters have the lowest genetic diversities and highest inbreeding metrics whereas the United Kingdom (UK) cluster exhibited intermediate genetic diversity. Non‐UK European ferrets had high genetic diversity, possibly a result of introgression with wild polecats. Notably, Hungarian ferrets had the highest genetic diversity and Hungary is the only country sampled with two wild polecat species. Our research has broad social, economic, and biomedical importance. Ferret owners and veterinarians should be made aware of potential inbreeding depression. Breeders in North America and Australia would benefit by incorporating genetically diverse ferrets from mainland Europe. Laboratories using ferrets as biomedical organisms should consider diversifying their genetic stock and incorporating genetic information into bioassays. These results also have forensic applications for conserving the genetics of wild polecat species and for identifying and managing sources of feral ferrets causing ecosystem damage.

We evaluated how American badgers (Taxidea taxus) might exert selective pressure on black-footed ferrets (Mustela nigripes) to develop antipredator defenses. In a colony of black-tailed prairie dogs (Cynomys ludovicianus) in South Dakota, badgers concentrated their activities where burrow openings and prairie dogs were abundant, a selective behavior that was exhibited by ferrets in the same colony. Badgers excavated burrows more often when in areas recently used by a ferret, suggesting that badgers hunt ferrets or steal prey from ferrets, or both. We also conducted an analysis of survival studies for ferrets and Siberian polecats (M. eversmanii) released onto prairie dog colonies. This polecat is the ferret's ecological equivalent but evolved without a digging predator. Badgers accounted for 30.0% of predation on polecats and 5.5% of predation on ferrets. In contrast, both polecats and ferrets have evolutionary experience with canids, providing a plausible explanation for the similar relative impact of coyotes (Canis latrans) on them (65.0% and 67.1% of predation, respectively). We hypothesize that ferrets and badgers coexist because ferrets are superior at exploitation competition and are efficient at avoiding badgers, and badgers are superior at interference competition.

In this study, Wilson et al . find that dendritic spines on neurons in the visual cortex cluster according to orientation preference. The degree of clustering on single neurons strongly predicts somatic orientation selectivity and the prevalence of local dendritic signals in the dendritic field, suggesting a role for dendritic computation in shaping orientation selectivity. The majority of neurons in primary visual cortex are tuned for stimulus orientation, but the factors that account for the range of orientation selectivities exhibited by cortical neurons remain unclear. To address this issue, we used in vivo two-photon calcium imaging to characterize the orientation tuning and spatial arrangement of synaptic inputs to the dendritic spines of individual pyramidal neurons in layer 2/3 of ferret visual cortex. The summed synaptic input to individual neurons reliably predicted the neuron's orientation preference, but did not account for differences in orientation selectivity among neurons. These differences reflected a robust input–output nonlinearity that could not be explained by spike threshold alone and was strongly correlated with the spatial clustering of co-tuned synaptic inputs within the dendritic field. Dendritic branches with more co-tuned synaptic clusters exhibited greater rates of local dendritic calcium events, supporting a prominent role for functional clustering of synaptic inputs in dendritic nonlinearities that shape orientation selectivity.

Adrenocortical disease (ACD) is a common problem in surgically sterilized, middle-aged to old ferrets (Mustela putorius furo). The adrenal tissues of these ferrets develop hyperplasia, adenomas, or adenocarcinomas, which produce steroid hormones including estradiol, 17-hydroxyprogesterone, and androstenedione. Major clinical signs attributable to overproduction of these hormones are alopecia (hair loss) in both sexes and a swollen vulva in females. Pruritus, muscle atrophy, hind limb weakness, and sexual activity or aggression are also observed in both sexes. Males can develop prostatic cysts, prostatitis, and urethral obstruction. ACD is thought to be linked to continuous and increased LH secretion, due to lack of gonadal hormone feedback in neutered ferrets. This continuous elevated LH acts on adrenal cortex LH receptors, resulting in adrenal hyperplasia or adrenal tumor. This study investigated whether the immunocontraceptive vaccine GonaConac, a GnRH vaccine developed to reduce the fertility of wildlife species and the spread of disease, could prevent or delay onset of ACD and treat alopecia in ferrets with existing ACD. Results showed that GonaCon provided relief from ACD by causing production of antibodies to GnRH, probably suppressing production and/or release of LH. Treatment caused many ACD symptoms to disappear, allowing the ferrets to return to a normal life. The study also found that the probability of developing ACD was significantly reduced in ferrets treated with GonaCon when young (1a3 years old) compared to untreated control animals. GonaCon caused injection site reaction in some animals when administered as an intramuscular injection but caused few side effects when administered subcutaneously. Both intramuscular and subcutaneous vaccination resulted in similar levels of GnRH antibody titers. Subcutaneous vaccination with GonaCon is thus recommended to prevent the onset of ACD and as a possible treatment for ACD-signs in domestic ferrets.

Reliable recognition of pain is difficult in ferrets as many currently available parameters are non-specific, inconsistent and/or impractical. Grimace scales have successfully been applied to assess pain in different animal species and might also be applicable to ferrets. To compose a Ferret Grimace Scale (FGS), we studied the facial musculature of ferrets and compared lateral photographs of 19 ferret faces at six time points before and after intraperitoneal telemetry probe implantation. We identified the Action Units (AUs) orbital tightening, nose bulging, cheek bulging, ear changes and whisker retraction as potential indicators of pain in ferrets. To evaluate whether these AUs could reliably be used to identify photographs taken before and after surgery, the photographs were scored 0, 1 or 2 (not, moderately or obviously present) by 11 observers that were blinded to the treatment and timing of the photographs. All AU-scores assigned to the photographs taken five hours after surgery were significantly higher compared to their time-matched baseline scores. Further analysis using the weights that were obtained using a Linear Discriminant Analysis revealed that scoring orbital tightening alone was sufficient to make this distinction with high sensitivity, specificity and accuracy. Including weighted scores for nose bulging, cheek bulging and ear change did not change this. As these AUs had more missing values than orbital tightening, their descriptions should be re-evaluated. Including whisker retraction, which had a negative weight, resulted in lower accuracy and should therefore in its current form be left out of the FGS. Overall, the results of this study suggest that the FGS and the AU orbital tightening in particular could be useful in a multifactorial pain assessment protocol for ferrets. However, before applying the FGS in practice, it should be further validated by incorporating more time points before and after applying (different) painful stimuli, and different levels of analgesia.

The developing human cortex contains diverse populations of neural progenitor cells, including a large proportion of outer radial glia (ORG), a progenitor type that is rare in the mouse. The authors identify a transcriptional signature of ORG characterized by markers of neuronal lineage fate and use single-cell analyses to contrast the heterogeneity of cortical progenitors across human, mouse and ferret. The human cerebral cortex depends for its normal development and size on a precisely controlled balance between self-renewal and differentiation of diverse neural progenitor cells. Specialized progenitors that are common in humans but virtually absent in rodents, called outer radial glia (ORG), have been suggested to be crucial to the evolutionary expansion of the human cortex. We combined progenitor subtype–specific sorting with transcriptome-wide RNA sequencing to identify genes enriched in human ORG, which included targets of the transcription factor neurogenin and previously uncharacterized, evolutionarily dynamic long noncoding RNAs. Activating the neurogenin pathway in ferret progenitors promoted delamination and outward migration. Finally, single-cell transcriptional profiling in human, ferret and mouse revealed more cells coexpressing proneural neurogenin targets in human than in other species, suggesting greater neuronal lineage commitment and differentiation of self-renewing progenitors. Thus, we find that the abundance of human ORG is paralleled by increased transcriptional heterogeneity of cortical progenitors.

This work identifies a population of precursors in the outer subventricular zone (SVZ) of developing human and ferret brains. The cells share some properties with the radial glia of the ventricular zone, and, in contrast with previously identified progenitors in SVZ, undergo several asymmetric neurogenic divisions. These progenitors may contribute to the development of gyrated cortices in higher mammals. A major cause of the cerebral cortex expansion that occurred during evolution is the increase in subventricular zone (SVZ) progenitors. We found that progenitors in the outer SVZ (OSVZ) of developing human neocortex retain features of radial glia, in contrast to rodent SVZ progenitors, which have limited proliferation potential. Although delaminating from apical adherens junctions, OSVZ progenitors maintained a basal process contacting the basal lamina, a canonical epithelial property. OSVZ progenitor divisions resulted in asymmetric inheritance of their basal process. Notably, OSVZ progenitors are also found in the ferret, a gyrencephalic nonprimate. Functional disruption of integrins, expressed on the basal process of ferret OSVZ progenitors, markedly decreased the OSVZ progenitor population size, but not that of other, process-lacking SVZ progenitors, in slice cultures of ferret neocortex. Our findings suggest that maintenance of this epithelial property allows integrin-mediated, repeated asymmetric divisions of OSVZ progenitors, providing a basis for neocortical expansion.

Small-animal models have been developed for several Filoviridae species; however, serial adaptation was required to produce lethal infection. These adapted viruses have sequence changes in several genes, including those that modulate the host immune response. Nonhuman primate models do not require adaptation of filoviruses. Here, we describe lethal models of disease for Bundibugyo, Sudan, and Zaire species of Ebolavirus in the domestic ferret, using wild-type nonadapted viruses. Pathologic features were consistent with disease in primates. Of particular importance, this is the only known small-animal model developed for Bundibugyo and the only uniformly lethal animal model for Bundibugyo.