Okay, after reading this exchange it is time for a history lesson on
rabies vaccinations for ferrets:

>>>...must be vaccinated with a specific Rabies vaccine determined
>>>by AFA.
>>
>>There is only one rabies vaccine that is tested and approved for
>>ferrets - Imrab-3 by Merial. This was not determined by the AFA or
>>any other show organization - it was determined by the USDA. If
>>another rabies vaccine is used, the ferret is not considered
>>protected against rabies and if a bite incident occurs, the ferret
>>will need to be put down for rabies testing. You may want to read
>>up on your vaccination facts :)
>>
>I was not aware of that so I thank you for the education....not that I
>hold anything approved by our government in very high regard anyway...

Vaccinations are NOT taken lightly and vaccinations for fatal zoonoses
(diseases humans can get from other animals) are especially not taken
lightly.

Before the USDA would okay IMRAB3 as a rabies vaccine for ferrets a LOT
of testing was done. The reason that IMRAB3 is okays for only one year
of protection for ferrets against rabies is because there were not
tests to see if that vaccine would last any longer in them and provide
enough coverage. Vaccines don't always. It varies by vaccine and by
species.

First there was an initial larger group of potential vaccines
considered. This was in the 1980s. None used live viruses and none used
ferret tissue in their creation. They looked to see which of those
vaccines had high levels of complications in the initial test groups.
Those vaccines were eliminated from the final test group.

The final test group was of something like 3 to 5 vaccines. After so
much time I don't recall how many Dr. Judi Bell told me were in the
running at first but it was just a few.

Those few vaccines had to be tested and then CHALLENGED. Yes, vaccinated
ferrets were exposed to rabies after a year and they had to see if they
came down with it. (I do NOT KNOW the particulars on this but I know of
survivors of one of the alternative vaccines so "sacrifice" must have
been reserved for questionable animals, those obviously ill, and maybe
for a random sample to be safest.) To meet USDA guidelines the success
rate for protection needs to be HIGH in the time frame being tested, so
almost all of any group of 100 need to be protected by the vaccines. I
can't recall exactly where in the percentile range the number needs to
be but I *think* that I vaguely recall that it needs to be sometime
like over 95% protected for a rabies vaccine to be approved.

What I DO recall clearly about vaccines removed from testing is why two
of the vaccines were ultimately eliminated from consideration.
1. One of them only gave SIX MONTHS of protection to ferrets. This was
a vaccine that gave much longer protection for other species but for
some reason it didn't work for very long in ferrets. So, yes, I guess
this means that the ferrets tried with that vaccine for longer must
have all died. I wish I could recall which vaccine that one was, but I
don't and I know that the manufacturer would have only applied for USDA
approval if no vaccine worked for longer because everyone doubted that
people would be okay with vaccines every 6 months.
2. Another worked well for protection (again, I don't recall which
vaccine) BUT the trials of that one were stopped when they noticed a
higher than expected serious complication rate for the vaccine. I don't
recall if it was anaphylactic shock or some other complication. What I
DO know is that Dr. Judi Bell volunteered to provide them with a home
and became the adopter of ones handicapped by that vaccine so that they
always had vet care and always had love.

The vaccine that had very few reactions and a lack of other
complications, and which worked for a full year in ferrets (and might
work for longer if testing is ever done) was IMRAB3.

That was a many year process involving some of the handful of
laboratories which are okayed for studying rabies. Certain diseases
must be handled only under highly controlled conditions so the numbers
of labs okayed to work with specific ones is very strictly limited.

In 1990 the USDA agreed that the data was conclusive that IMRAB3
provided protection to a sufficient percentage of ferrets for a year.

Then the process which ultimately led to the improvement of the
Compendium for Animal Rabies Prevention and Control -- thus saving the
lives of a large number of ferrets every year -- began. As you know,
that research, funding it, compiling it, having it at a point which
stood up to challenge, etc. took ANOTHER 8 years. Luckily, there had
never been a study of rabies variants across a species to look for how
they varied and that wound up providing the bulk of the funding though
the ferret community -- which was sick of needless destruction of so
many ferrets -- provided the rest. That also got done over time, and
that is a bit of history for another day, though I suspect enough of it
can be found right in the FML Archives that a person can easily enough
look it up. All in all, the work that took place in over a decade of
work has saved many, many ferrets.

BTW, being fair when fair is due: Marshall Farms gave a great deal
at their own expense to make sure that such conditions improved for
ferrets. I don't know if the current generation would be so generous
for the sake of the ferrets (any hope that at some point to see
evidence of similar levels of generosity for ferret well-being, but the
father certainly was kind to many subsequent generations of ferrets and
ferret people that way. Those who not around then don't recall all of
the needless deaths and heartbreak, even ones where no injury happened
but people's exes decided this forcing the deaths of pets would be a
good revenge, or situations like that of Kodo when the scratch an
elderly man got was probably from the cage and even though the man
wanted to just do the shots the state still destroyed the ferret (a
very close judgement since Kodo almost won his life in court).

Sukie (not a vet)

Recommended ferret health links:
http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/ferrethealth/
http://ferrethealth.org/archive/
http://www.afip.org/ferrets/index.html
http://www.miamiferret.org/fhc/
http://www.ferretcongress.org/
http://www.trifl.org/index.shtml
http://homepage.mac.com/sukie/sukiesferretlinks.html

[Posted in FML 5736]