As you can see I'm a few days behind on my reading but I wanted to respond
to T. Miller's question on the Compendium in Canada.   You are correct in
assuming that the compendium is for the US only, however as we discovered,
it still carries a lot of weight here in Canada.
 
Canada hasn't done their own studies on rabies in ferrets (at least not that
we were able to find) so what we did here in Edmonton, Alberta was to give
our local Capital Health authorities a copy of the compendium's
recommendations as well as statistics on ferret versus dog/cat bites which
we took off the net.  That followed up by a meeting with the Medical Officer
of Health resulted, in very short order, in a press release from Capital
Health stating that they were recommending that properly vaccinated ferrets
involved in bite situations be kept under observation for 10 days.  As with
the compendium it unfortunately also recommends that stray ferrets be
euthanized.  We're still working on changing that one.
 
I believe (please correct me if I'm wrong) that Capital Health is a regional
authority and just like the US we need to deal with each area separately so
I encourage all Canadian ferret lovers to mail a copy of the 1998 Compendium
to your local authorities and to follow up with them.
 
For us this was just the first step.  We want to know how these
recommendations get to those people that make the life or death decisions
for ferrets.  We want to be certain that they know about the Capital
Health's recommendations and are following them.  And we want them to know
that we are ready and willing to take in any ferret who requires quarantine.
 
Our goal is for Alberta (the entire province) to follow a 10 day quarantine
procedure for all ferrets.
 
Thanks to the 1998 Compendium we have the information necessary to make
Canadian authorities listen.
 
Barb Gustafson (aka Boots)
Alberta Ferret Society
 
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[Posted in FML issue 2309]