You can find a lot on this topic in the Ferret Mailing List archives
from back when I was following up among states after ferrets first
were lumped with dogs and cats in the compendium guidelines.

Most states follow the National Association of State Public Health
Veterinarians' Compendium of Animal Rabies Control guidelines. You can
also find those links in the archives in some of my posts, or you can
Google, or link from the CDC site. Each person concerned needs to check
with his or her state heath public health vet in charge of rabies
policy.

There are variations among the states and some of them are huge. In a
few states, especially some Southern ones the LOCAL health departments
decide on policy for themselves, not the states. In fact, multiple
experts at state health departments in the South told me that they
would be virtually powerless if an epidemic occured due to their state
laws and one was very worried about that due to a localized TB concern
at that time.

So, it is NOT possible to generalize from one state to another in
relation to rabies concerns. Most allow quarantines for accused ferrets
who have up to date vaccines, though some have longer than ten days
required. If there is a legal challenge by the person claiming to be
bitten, especially with a head bite then the animals usually die no
matter which state is involved.

I will copy myself in case i have time to send the URL but you can
look it up easily enough.

[Posted in FML 7297]