Ferrets in medical research
Summary:
The video shows ferrets playing whilst their enclosure is being cleaned. As you can see they are playful creatures, playing with a football and even a bag of sawdust. The wooden box is an example of items in their housing that are added for play and exploration. The enclosures seen are similar to those found in other facilities; fairly large with the animals are housed in groups as they benefit from social interactions with other ferrets. This video has no sound.
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Related information:
Ferrets are used in biomedical research on the heart, brain and digestive system. Because they are domesticated and their menstrual cycle is easily monitored they have also become important in reproduction research. Ferrets can also be used as an alternative to dogs, cats, and primates in some studies. Because they suffer similar flu symptoms to humans, they are used to study flu strains such as bird and swine flu, and in flu vaccine development. Around 0.7% of animal research uses small mammals such as rabbits and ferrets.
