The Compendium committee met Oct. 10-11, and early this week Independent
Voice legal affairs writer Eric Sampson interviewed Dr. Suzanne Jenkins to
ask her what happened.
 
All she would say is that new language was added to the end of the paragraph
of the Rabies Compendium that discusses "Managemetn of Animals That Bite
Humans." The present language says that "Prior vaccination of an animal
[other than cat or dog] may not preclude the necessity for euthanasia and
testing if the period of virus shedding is unknown for that species.
Management of animals other than dogs and cats depends on the species, the
circumstances of the bite, and the epidemiology of rabies in the area."
 
According to Jenkins, the new language gives additional guidelines to state
vets to take into account the vaccination history of the animal; potential
for exposure; and the general health of the animal.  The language is not
ferret-specific, however.  She declined to provide the precise new language
that has been adopted, indicating that it will be published soon in the
Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association.
 
Jenkins noted in passing however that she is expecting a report on the
raccoon strain study in early December.
 
My evaluation is that probably this is a basically meaningless cosmetic
language change designed to blunt criticism of her harsh policy.  The bottom
line is still, I believe, that the state vets are going to be given to
understand that they are to take all these factors into account--and then
kill the ferret for testing because "you can never be sure" it didnt sneak
out some night and get bit by a bat.
 
However, we'll just have to wait & see what comes out of it, keeping our
fingers crossed too that the raccoon results are "clean" -- i.e. that they
confirm the results of studies on other strains & indicate, once again, that
ferrets do not shed the rabies virus before they become symptomatic.
 
A big thank-you to everyone who got their vet to write to Jenkins or the
AVMA or other Compendium committee members.  The fact that they changed the
language at all, even if only to throw the ferret community a meaningless
sop, does indicate that they are beginning to feel some heat on the issue.
Maybe next time, if more people get vets and perhaps ferret-friendly
state-level public health officials to write in, they will go farther & make
a meaningful change in the policy.  At all events, if the new language goes
in as Jenkins describes it, it will give ferret defenders an additional
talking point when trying to argue local authorities out of demanding the
death of the ferret involved in a bite case.
[Posted in FML issue 1726]