Karle Staudt <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>I received a Rabies Certification from my vet for our two ferrets (so they
>could go camping with us in the state parks) and found that it says that
>the serum was a Killed Virus by (producer) Merial.
 
Merial is the new name for Rhone-Meriuex, just make sure it's Imrab-3, as
there are a few different 'varieties' of Imrab and only one is approved
for use in ferrets.  I just checked the 1999 Compendium of Animal Rabies
Control (the link at the page for public health says 1998, but the
Compendium is for 1999.), and the vaccine is now listed with Merial.
 
All rabies vaccines used in the US in domestics are killed/inactive
vaccines, the only other one is Raboral, a rabies glycoprotein, live
vaccinia vector vaccine and it is used only in rabies control programs
for wildlife.  Despite the description, I was told it can NOT cause the
rabies disease in animals that receive it as I used to think, it is not a
'modified live' vaccine.  Your vet probably couldn't get their hands on
that stuff even if they wanted to, as I understand it's under fairly tight
control.
 
For more information, see the Compendium, which is in three parts:
http://www.avma.org/pubhlth/rabcont.html  Part I: Recommendations for
Parenteral Immunization Procedures
 
http://www.avma.org/pubhlth/rabvacc.html Part II: Rabies Vaccines Licensed
in US and NASPHV Recommendations, 1999
 
http://www.avma.org/pubhlth/rabcontb.html  Part III: Rabies Control
 
-Ilena Ayala
[Posted in FML issue 2706]