Compendium of recent literature on the ferret.

A survey of research publications since 1977 indicated that the ferret is a rather popular research animal. Using the BIOSIS and MEDLINE data bases, 569 citations of research involving the ferret were identified. Over 27% of these citations involved the use of ferrets in the field of physiology, and an additional 24% of the citations were in virology and immunology. The areas of pharmacology, toxicology and teratology accounted for 10.4, 8.4 and 4.0% of the citations, respectively.