The NASPHV Rabies Compendium Committee will hold its annual meeting October
10-11.  This is probably the only real chance over the next 12 months to get
a change for the better in guidelines for managing ferret bite cases -- and
the only chance to ensure against a possible change for the worse!  NASPHV
does not believe the opinions of "laymen" matter where public health is
concerned.  The only way to get the committee's attention, I believe, is to
get veterinarians who have active ferret practices to write the people
directly involved and let them know they consider the guidelines too harsh
and not justified by the data.
 
Consequently, I earnestly ask that ALL of you contact the ferret vets with
whom you are in contact urging them to write to any or all of those
officials (names and addresses given below).  And I ask that you contact all
the other ferret owners you know to get them to urge their vets to write
too.  A personally drafted letter will probably have more impact than a form
letter, but vets are busy people and some may prefer to sign a preprinted
letter.  So it might be a good idea to have one in hand to give him or her.
I will be happy to email a "model letter" to anyone on request, and will
also be posting a printable copy of it on the Rabies Information Page on the
Web (http://members.gnn.com/AcmeFerret/lifepage/rabies.htm).
 
Every vet's letter should contain at least these key points:
 
1.  The Committee's current guidelines are responsible for the unnecessary
killing of hundreds of housebound, properly vaccinated, rabies-free ferrets
each year in this country.
 
2.  The incidence of rabies in ferrets (only 4 cases nationally from 1989 to
1994) is much lower than dogs, cats or horses, and ferrets have NEVER
transmitted rabies to a human.
 
3.  Public health authorities do not routinely recommend euthanization for
testing of horses that bite humans, even though there is no recognized
shedding period for horses either; as ferrets are 17 times less likely to
contract rabies than horses, they should be treated as posing a lesser, not
greater risk, than horses.
 
4.  Research has shown again and again that infected ferrets rarely shed the
virus at all in their saliva, and never before onset of symptoms.
 
5.  Research has shown again and again that once symptoms appear, the ferret
dies within 7 days.  This means an observation period IS reasonable, as a
verdict CAN be reached in time to begin postexposure rabies treatment for a
human bite victim, should that prove necessary.
 
6.  While further liberalization will hopefully be possible once the
CDC-sponsored raccoon-strain shedding study is completed, the Committee
should act NOW to ease its policy.  There is already more than enough
evidence to justify an observation period for visibly healthy, provably
vaccinated ferrets that have a well documented history of confinement.
 
The addresses to write are as follows:
 
Dr. Kathleen Smith DVM
President, NASPHV, Inc
P.O. Box 118
Columbus, OH 43266
 
Charles E. Rupprecht, VMD, PhD
Building 15 Clifton Campus
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
1600 Clifton Rd. G-13
Atlanta GA 30333
 
Mary Beth Leininger DVM
President, AVMA
1931 N Meacham Rd.
Schaumburg IL 60173-4360
 
Dr. Lyle Vogel, DVM, MPH
AVMA Staff Consultant
Council on Public Health and Regulatory Veterinary Medicine
1931 N Meacham Rd.
Schaumburg IL 60173-4360
 
Suzanne R. Jenkins, VMD, MPH
Virginia Department of Health
Office of Epidemiology
P.O. Box 2448
Richmond, VA 23218.
 
If possible, get your vet to give you a copy of his or her letter, - better
yet, offer to drop it in the mail yourself and to make copies to the other
addressees: then you can be *sure* it gets mailed.  We'd also appreciate an
info copy.  If your vet is not too timorous, ask him or her if they would
allow the letter to be posted on the Internet, or their name to be listed on
an "honor roll" of veterinarians that have written in on this issue.  I will
be glad to put them up on the Rabies Information Page.
 
I cannot over-emphasize the importance of getting vets on the record on
this issue.  Many state and local officials, even legislators, are too
intimidated by the Compendium Committee to do anything but endorse
euthanization of every ferret involved in a bite case.  Just recently I
talked with Dr. William Bigler, Florida Health Department senior
epidemiologist, who told me that although, in theory, the decision is
always made on a case by case basis, in practice he has never seen a case
where the evidence of continuous confinement was strong enough to spare the
ferret's life!
 
We are up against a public health bureaucracy that does not consider itself
accountable to the general lay public.  And Dr. Jenkins, the driving spirit
behind NASPHV Inc.  (National Association of State Public Health
Veterinarians), is a zealous enemy of ferrets as companion animals, as
evidenced by the strident tone of the NASPHV "Statement on Ferrets." I am
not at all convinced that Jenkins intends to bring the shedding study series
to closure anytime soon.  Pressure from their peer group is probably the
only way, in the short term, to get any change for the better.
 
Howard Davis
Humane Affairs Coordinator
League of Independent Ferret Enthusiasts (LIFE)
[Posted in FML issue 1686]