Use of ferrets in studies of the visual system.
The ferret (Mustela putorius furo) is proving to be an excellent experimental animal for many anatomical and physiological studies of the adult and developing visual system. As a result, the amount of data available on the ferret's visual system is increasing at a rapid rate. The purposes of this paper are to briefly review some of those data and to present some of the reasons why the ferret is an appropriate choice as an experimental animal for visual system studies.
D000818:Animals; D000830:Animals, Laboratory; D002335:Carnivora / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D005289:Ferrets / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology; D012160:Retina / Q000033:anatomy & histology; D014785:Vision, Ocular; D014793:Visual Cortex / Q000033:anatomy & histology / Q000254:growth & development; D014795:Visual Pathways / Q000033:anatomy & histology