Al wrote:
>I would like to quote from something that Dick Bossart wrote in his
>commentson the 1995 Compedium of Animal Rabies Control ...
>"The Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta have said that there has never
>been a documented case of a properly vaccinated animal developing rabies."
 
The reference for that statement was Phinizy, J. G.; letter to Hon. Richard
Trelfa; Feb. 8, 1995.
 
I assume that what Phinizy and CDC were discussing were natural cases of
rabies in vaccinated animals, since during tests of the vaccines, they
inject massive amounts of the rabies virus in the test animals to see if
they do come down with rabies.  Effectiveness of greater than 86.7% (I
believe is the figure) is considered acceptable.  That means that some
vaccinated test animals do come down with the virus.
 
As far as the doctor's statement goes, it's a repeat of the unsubstanciated
garbage first printed by the Calif Dept of Public Health back in the 1980's.
It's been torn to shreds by many researchers, the latest being the Pacific
Research Institute.  Yet, like most myths, it seems to have a life of its
own.  Keiser and Constantine (sp) used data gathered from 18 states and
London England over a 10 year period for his 64 "ferret attacks" data, and
never bothered to define the word "attack".  One attack, I understand, was a
ferret standing on top of a baby left lying on the floor.  Another was a
lost ferret that put its paws on an unsuspecting person.  One ferret, I
understand, jumped in a car with two people and was promptly stomped to
death.
 
On the other side we have about 3 million dog bites a year, and an average
of 16.3 deaths due to dog bites every year.  The ratio of dogs to ferrets is
somewhere around 10 to 1, so it's easy to see that dogs constitute a much
greater risk than ferrets.  Of the 16.3 deaths per year from dogs, 57% of
the victims were under the age of 10; 16.5% were infants under the age of 1
year.  [ Sacks, J.J.  et al; "Fatal Dog Attacks, 1989-1994]
 
The point is that you never leave anyone who can't defend themselfes alone
with an animal.
 
Dick B.
[Posted in FML issue 1734]