Judy-- To be USDA approved for use in ferrets does not require the manufacturing company to have performed viral shedding period studies. This is why you can have an animal that has been vaccinated with a vaccine USDA approved for use in that animal and still run into problems with the Health Department folks. Most of them will accept nothing short of extensive viral shedding studies, and only those performed in the U.S. at that! There are some studies done in Europe that do cover rabies in ferrets to various degrees, but it seems that almost every time they are presented as reason for quarantine instead of destruction and testing, they are ignored because "they weren't conducted in the U.S.A." The only thing that the vaccine maker had to prove as far as rabies and ferrets is that ferrets innoculated with their vaccine maintain high antibody titers and that a statistically significant number of those ferrets do not develop rabies when directly exposed to a live challenge virus. There are other things to be proved, such as the safety of the vaccine for the animal (i.e.-- some of the kinds of reactions mentioned in the article on distemper vaccines), but not relating to the disease itself. There are a few proposals for rabies shed period studies in ferrets seeking funding right now. A way you can contribute to funding these studies is by sending a donation to the Morris Fund and marking specifically on the check and any accompanying letter that you send that it is only to be used for rabies viral shed period studies of ferrets. They have the proposals for the studies before them, and when there is enough money to fund a study, they will select which study(ies) to support. Some will say that it is not right for us to bend to those who demand U.S. studies that will require more ferrets to die when there are studies available. I say neither is it right to let our companion ferrets continue in their uncertain status such that they can be seized and destroyed, have their owners' lives destroyed, and the laws that affect them can teeter back and forth frequently. I think a carefully conducted, well-documented shed study could give as a large part of the support we need to get ferrets the recognized quarantine procedures that could save them from many threats of senseless destruction. I would also encourage you to see what existing ferret organizations in your area are doing to promote the ferret as a safe pet. If there are none, consider starting your own group. If there is an inactive group consider joining and trying to stimulate interest and action in that group. Debra [Posted in FML issue 0724]