This was posted on the FHL this morning.  I also sent it along to the
shelter I volunteer at - the shelter's response is posted below as well.
 
Lisa
 
Today I had my second ever fatal vaccine reaction - fatal despite
immediate and aggressive treatment.  The reaction was very similar to
the first fatal reaction I saw in October 2004, in that it began within
two to three minutes after vaccination, and was characterized by severe
and catastrophic respiratory collapse followed by cardiac arrest (classic
anaphylaxis).  This was a MF spayed jill, four years old, who had been
my patient from time of purchase as a kit and who was completely healthy.
The previous fatal reaction had been in a privately bred two year old
intact male, my own ferret, in fact, and also completely healthy.
 
The October 2004 reaction was in a ferret with no history of vaccine
reaction, this one had no history of reaction to distemper vaccine, and a
very mild reaction to rabies vaccination last year.  He was pre-treated
with Benadryl, she was not.
 
On review of the October 2004 reaction, I found that both vaccines were
from the same lot - despite my having received a new shipment less than
two weeks ago.  I attempted to contact United Vaccines today, but was
told that their customer service representative was out of the office -
I will be calling again tomorrow.
 
In the meantime, I will not be using any vaccines from this lot number
again, and thought I'd get this information out there in case this is
*not* simply the horrible coincidence that I hope it is.  I'd hate for
this to be due to something in the lot - and since I've used other
doses, hopefully it is just an awful coincidence.  But in many years of
vaccinating ferrets, I've never before had fatalities from reactions, and
the fact that both involved the same lot of vaccine concerns me greatly.
 
The vaccine is Fervac-D, the lot number is FH01B, the diluent number was
different between the two.
 
Feel free to disseminate the above information to any interested parties.
 
Dr. Ruth
 
 
Response from shelter:
 
Thanks...I checked the lot number of the last bad reaction From Fervac
that happened a few weeks ago with Peaches and it was the same lot # Dr
Ruth Mentioned.  I need to tell Dr Bowman.  Actually I will forward her
the post .
 
Yikes!!!!
[Posted in FML issue 4877]