In response to Matt's note quoting answers.com
(Respond to http://www.answers.com/main/contact_us.jsp )
and medicinenet
(Respond to [log in to unmask], [log in to unmask] )
  each of which contained this lunacy:
 
> http://www.medicinenet.com/rabies/article.htm
> http://www.answers.com/topic/rabies.
>
>What animals carry rabies?
>In the United States, domesticated dogs and cats are not primary
>carriers of the rabies virus.  Rather, raccoons, skunks, foxes, bats,
>and ferrets are more likely to harbor the disease and directly infect
>humans.  When domesticated pets are infected, there may be a history
>of previous interaction with these wild animals.
 
I encourage others to follow their own sources of information as well
as the ones I mention below and links from those, and to write their
own letters to these places.  Since both of these often are considered
reputable resources it pays to stem the errors immediately.  Please, be
polite and include URLs from highly reputable resources (Feel free to
include the links below.)
 
Here are some additional resources other people can mention and quote
which also get across the important points:
 
http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=11&cat=1283&articleid=562
http://www.avma.org/communications/brochures/rabies/rabies_brochure.asp
http://www.cste.org/
specifically
http://www.cste.org/pdffiles/2006/2006RabiesCompendium.pdf
http://www-personal.ksu.edu/~sprite/RABIES.HTML
http://www.ferret-fact.org/Rabies.htm
http://www.mass.gov/dph/cdc/epii/rabies/rabdcf.htm
http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabies/ques&ans/rabies_q_a_.pdf
http://www.michigan.gov/documents/rabies_pets_flowchart_134247_7.pdf
http://www.uga.edu/scwds/topic_index/1998/FerretRabiesPolicyChanged.pdf
<http://chfs.ky.gov/NR/rdonlyres/
51133FDB-C335-4BF9-B786-3499BF88D2C1/0/RABIES200613.pdf>
(It is not unusual to find any state's health dept. providing info
like this)
http://chfs.ky.gov/dph/epi/rabies.htm
http://www.oneidacounty.org/oneidacty/gov/dept/health/Rabies/
2006ClinicScheduleRabies.pdf
http://www.trifl.org/politics.shtml
 
and there are plenty more
 
>Your medicinenet article on rabies has had incorrect information
>referenced by answers.com.  If content corrections have not yet been
>made I provide below both information and useful, reputable resources
>below, complete with dating to avoid outdated information.  Thank you
>for looking into this.
>
>Re: your rabies write-up.  If you check with the CDC (their dept.
>head for rabies is Dr. Charles Rupprecht in NC) or the National
>Association of State Public Health Veterinarians (NASPHV) you will
>learn that world-wide there has NEVER been a case of a ferret
>transmitting rabies.  In France ferrets and polecats are considered
>"dead-end" species for the infection, but the U.S.  does not permit
>that designation with any strongly dangerous disease.
>
>Nor do ferrets easily acquire rabies.  Unlike dogs they do not get it
>from eating infected animals, and when the CDC extensively studied
>rabies in ferrets it was found that unlike skunks, foxes, and some
>other species they die rapidly when infected.  In a 1994 NASPHV brief
>(before rabies in ferrets was studied extensively, and only a few
>years after the USDA found that IMRAB 3 met its strict criteria, so
>many vets still did not know about using this vaccine in ferrets) only
>14 cases of rabies in ferrets had been encountered over the space of
>33 years.  Now vets are more informed, and people are less likely to
>house ferrets outdoors.  Remember that there are many ferrets in the
>United States.  According to Ken Wells of the Wall Street Journal they
>comprise over 2 Billion dollars annually of the over $32 Billion spent
>on pets and their care in the U.S.
>
>Imrab 3 is an effective rabies vaccine for ferrets for at least a
>year, and has had USDA approval for this use after extensive testing
>since 1990.  (See the annual Compendium of Animal Rabies Prevention
>and Control in each January's Journal of the American Veterinary
>Medical Association, or at the NASPHV site.) Ferrets have been
>considered to be at least as safe in terms of rabies handling as
>dogs and cats since late 1997.
>
>Some resources which ARE UP TO DATE and based upon facts rather
>than supposition:
> E-mail:  [log in to unmask]
> http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabies/Ques&Ans/q&a.htm
> http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabies/default.htm
> http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/rr5403a1.htm
> http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/rabies/Professional/professi.htm
> http://www.nasphv.org/
> http://s94745432.onlinehome.us/RabiesCompendium.pdf
 
-- Sukie Crandall (not a vet, and not speaking for any of the below
in my private posts)
Recommended health resources to help ferrets and the people who love
them:
Ferret Health List
http://www.smartgroups.com/groups/ferrethealth
FHL Archives
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
AFIP Ferret Pathology
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
Miamiferrets
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
International Ferret Congress Critical References
http://www.ferretcongress.org
[Posted in FML issue 5344]