The Good Life - Mink Research

useful to humans to help them overcome "jet lag" experienced after long trips by air through several time zones. And, carrying this a step further, some suggest that it may be helpful as a sort of "sleeping pill," to enable people to get a good night's sleep. So, to those who question the value of the fur industry to society, we can point out that mink, over and above the beautiful pelts they produce, may be useful laboratory animals for testing products, like melatonin, that may benefit the public at large. Sometimes research brings unexpected results. A survey was conducted two years ago in Denmark to assess the losses of kits in the first few days after whelping. When the figures were assembled, it was noticed that a disproportionate number of the kit losses occurred on ranches served by a single feed manufacturing plant, so this research effort, designed merely to identify and quantitate the losses, ended up giving a possible cause of the kit deaths. Dr. John Gorham, at Washington State University, who we all recognize as a world leader in mink disease research, tells me that he has reached an age where he feels he should summarize his tremendous output of disease research and possibly publish it in book form. As he does this, he has kindly offered to send me some of the articles he will include and I hope to include these in future issues of this newsletter. I first met John in the late 1940's, when I was doing mink nutrition studies at the University of British Columbia, and John came up from Washington to see what was going on. I have since admired his work and we have been good friends for many years. Bob Zimbal, who chairs our Mink Farmers' Research Foundation Board, tells me that he has invited two Wisconsin veterinarians to join the group. They are Dr. John Easley, of Glenbuelah and Dr. Hugh Hildebrandt of Medford, and we welcome them to this group. If you know these men, please congratulate and thank them for undertaking this important work for the mink industry. I wish you all a successful mink growing season.