"At the moment, I am not completely sure of the CDC's position on this, or if
they even have anything written down."
 
According to the 1996 Compendium of Animal Rabies Control under the section
MANAGEMENT OF ANIMALS THAT BITE HUMANS:
"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."
 
In addition Charles Rupprecht has repeatedly stated that risk assesment is
the first step in dealing with a bite incident and that there are cases when
risk assesment will eliminate the need for any action against the biting
animal.
 
I hear the cry go up throughout the ferret community every time there is a
bite incident that we all need to contribute more towards the completion of
the domestic shedding studies.
 
(Let me take a minute here to put on an asbestos suit before continuing)
Anyone who understands how studies such as this are actually funded knows
that the contributions of individuals are insignificant to the actual
funding efforts.  In a conversation I had with Dr. Briggs (in charge of the
study) she told me that we, as a ferret community, could actually raise more
funds faster by turing our efforts towards lobbying the organizations who
fund major scientific research projects to fund this one.  Public Health
loves to throw out the line that "ferret owners and clubs need to work
harder to fund further studies".  It makes us look like we're the ones not
working hard enough when they are taking shortcuts in doing their jobs.
Collecting funds on a personal level is the slowest and least efficient
method.  I propose that the ferret community direct serious lobbying efforts
towards the funding organizations and use the individual contributions we
collect for copying and distribution of the educational materials we already
have concerning rabies and shedding (which BTW already exceeds the ammount
of data used to establish the quarantine for dogs).
 
As a final question let me ask "what makes us think that they will accept
new data when they already have two european studies and one domestic which
they don't?"
[Posted in FML issue 1600]