Progressive retinal degeneration in ranch mink

Retinal degeneration was prevalent in a large group of sapphire and pastel mink (Mustela vison) kept for studies on slow viral diseases. Nearly 78% of those two to eight years old were affected. The retinopathy was equally common in both sexes but more frequent in sapphires (85%) than in pastels (63%), and it was severe more often in sapphires than in pastels. By light microscopy, the primary change appeared to be progressive degeneration of fully developed photoreceptors, beginning in their outer segments. In many mink, including some younger ones, the rods and cones and outer nuclear layer had disappeared from all but the far periphery of the fundus. The inner retinal layers were spared until late in the disease, and the pigment epithelium remained essentially unchanged. The cause of the retinopathy was not established. It may represent an abiotrophy in which the structural integrity of the photoreceptors began to wane in many mink after they reached two years of age. Apart from reducing visual acuity, the retinopathy has implications for the photoperiodic control of fur growth and reproduction in this highly light-sensitive carnivore.