Todd,
 
I reread my post.  You're right.  The word conservative was a poor
choice.  A very relative term.  A 5:1 ratio of dogs to ferrets is
conservative depending on how you look at it; when compared to, say,
10:1.  The 10:1 ratio would cut the rabies ratio in half but as you said
still be significant.  The ferret population has grown quite rapidly in
the past decade. I haven't really been able to find real good records on
the pet populations, but perhaps I should have stuck with the higher
ratio and definately used a different term than "conservative".
 
Someone on FML asked a few days/weeks ago for more info from me.  I
appologize on several fronts.  I didn't get a chance to respond; and I
lost the message so I don't know who to respond to now.  The rabies data
that I posted is the most recent I was able to find.  I do have some
copies of the European studies, but U.S. Public Health officials won't
rely on  any of that data because the European strains of rabies are
different that those in the USA.  I think that it does offer emperical
evidence however.  Those studies show that the Domestic Ferret does not
get the disease very easily and does not readily shed the virus in the
saliva.  *IF* the domestic ferret showed a similar response to the US
strains, what results would you expect to observe?   Low incidence of
infection and near zero incidence of transmittal - which is exactly what
we see - 16 cases of rabies in ferrets since 1960 and zero cases of
transmittal to humans.  Certainly not proof, but at least an indication
worth considering.
 
I did finally get some info on the rabies test used by NH at least.  I
believe that this is used by most if not all states to test for rabies.
I had been told that they tested for antibodies and I couldn't figure out
how they could keep from getting false positives if the animal tested had
been vaccinated for rabies.  The NH state lab tells me that they test for
an "antigen" not antibody, and that this test is unaffected by a
vaccination.  They also stated that they did *not* check for the presence
of the rabies virus in the saliva - said that it was unnecessary.  Tried
to explain about the European finding but they weren't interested.  Since
they've never had a rabies positive ferret yet, maybe they don't care.
They have tested (read that killed) 9 ferrets in NH in 1992 - 1993.  Zero
positives.
 
Dick B.
 
[Posted in FML issue 0820]