Here it is folks.  This is what we're up against in NH.  This was sent
out by the NH. Department of Public Health to schools, vets, doctors,
newspapers, olice, etc.:
 
 
N.H. Department of Health & Human Services
Division of Public Health Services
6 Hazen Drive                                           Public Health
Concord NH 03301                                        NEWS
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
            Ferrets Are A High-Risk Animal For Rabies
 
 
      CONCORD (March 23, 1993) - State health officials are urging
residents to consider the potential risks associated with ferrets to
themselves and their children before buying one as a pet. The ferret, a
weasle-like mammal having yellowish fur and dark feet, is a fierce and
aggressive fighter developed from the Old World polecat, which was once
used to capture and kill rats, rabbits and snakes.
 
      "They may look cute and playful, but they pose a danger to humans,
especially children," says Dr. Patrick Meehan, state health officer and
director of the NH Division of Public Health Services. "Ferrets are not
afraid of humans, and they are known to attack without warning."
 
      Meehan points to a California Department of Health Services study
of 452 ferret attacks on human beings for evidence. Sixty-four of the
victims were infants and young children. The bite wounds - mostly located
on the head and throat were quite severe, requiring reconstructive
surgery in many instances.
 
      "The attacks on the infants usually happened when the child was
either lying down or sleeping, and when the parents weren't present,"
says Meehan. RTwo years ago in Oregon, an infant was killed by the
family's pet ferret."
 
      Researchers believe that the sounds babies make (e.g., the noise
made when sucking on a pacifier or bottle) and their smells and/or
behaviors may actually trigger a ferret to attack, since they resemble
those of a baby rabbit, a food staple of ferrets.
 
      The attacks aside, ferrets are also considered to be a high-risk
animal for getting rabies. To date, rabid ferrets have been found in pet
shops, peoples' homes, and in the wild. Dr. Geoffrey Smith, state
epidemiologist, says that although there is a rabies vaccine approved for
use in ferrets, its effectiveness is questionable at best.
 
         RWe know so little about the clinical signs of rabies in
ferrets, and exactly what the period of infectiousness is, that the only
safe practice is to kill the ferret - immunized or not - when it bites a
person and test it for rabies rather than take a chance and hope that the
animal isn't rabid," Smith said. "You have to remember that rabies is
almost always fatal in humans. You can't wait for symptoms to show up,
because if you do it's too late."
 
      Although bites from a rabid animal can transmit the rabies virus, a
person can also become infected by having contact with the infectious
saliva when it contaminates a break in the skin or comes into contact
with the lining of the eye, nose or mouth. In one instance where a rabid
ferret was taken to school, more than two dozen people were exposed to
the virus and had to be treated.
 
      "Experience in, other parts of the nation, show that ferrets are
very skillful at escaping from cages and from houses," says Smith, "so if
a ferret is caged indoors you cannot consider that the family and the
neighborhood are safe from attack and/or rabies. Because, quite simply,
they aren't."
 
Media Contacts:
 
S.F. Tomajczyk                          M. Geoffrey Smith, MD, MPH
Public Information                      State Epidemiologist
(603) 271-4462                  (603) 271-4477
 
[Posted in FML issue 0766]