Brief Comments of Suzanne R. Jenkins, VMD, MPH given on November 6, 1997 at
the 8th Annual Rabies in the America's Conference in Kingston, Ontario,
Canada.
 
"I'm up here in my role as Chairman of the Compendium of Animal Rabies
Control, which is a Committee of the National Association of [State] Public
Health Veterinarians.  I want to give particular thanks to Mike [Niezgoda]
because a lot of times it probably felt like a thankless task.  I just want
you to know how enormously grateful the Public Health Community is to have
some good science on which to make an important Public Health decision.  You
listed all the other contributors and so I won't go through that list.  I
will mention there were some individual ferret owners who also supported
this study.
 
Based on that information, the Compendium Committee, which met last weekend,
has decided that we have enough evidence to say that ferrets can be managed
the same way that dogs and cats are managed when they bite humans, or when
they get exposed to rabies.  And so, the 1998 Compendium will list with dogs
and cats, ferrets on all issues: from licensing and picking up strays; to
mandatory vaccination and post-exposure management.  Thank you."
[Posted in FML issue 2118]