Hello all!
 
First of all I'm sorry if you see this twice (I'm crossposting to the FML
and to APF).
 
Now onto my reason for posting. :)  I was talking to my father-in-law
yesterday and he was telling me about a mini-seminar he went to with a
special education student he works with.  This mini-seminar was about
proper animal care.  If I remember correctly an ex-police officer from Bay
County (Michigan) was the presenter.  He informed the class that pets
should be vaccinated against rabies and went on to say that ferrets don't
show symptoms of rabies until 45 days have gone by.  He also stated that
the 10 day quarantine period that most shelters go by isn't good enough
for ferrets because of the 45 day "fact".
 
Out of curiousity I wrote to Bob Church to ask him his opinion and he
confirmed my suspicion that the story is untrue.  As he explained, ferrets
are very resistant to rabies and once infected they die so rapidly that it
isn't shed in their saliva.  I'm curious to know anyone else's opinions as
well.
 
In any case I thought I better get the word out that yet another
misconception is going around.
 
Thanks for reading,
Holly
and the gruesome twosome:  Dweezil and Opie
[Posted in FML issue 2977]