Someone posted that the MD officials were justified in killing the ferret on the basis of a "one in a million" chance that it was infected. First, is the issue that 30 days had passed since the bite, far too long to begin treatment. Second is the fact that PH did not recommend the anti-rabies series which they should have if they suspected that the ferret might have carried rabies. Now let's look at the odds. One in a million? Over the period from 1988 to 1992 there were 2 ferrets found with rabies. The ferret population in 1988 was estimated by AFA at somewhere near 8 million; in 1992, somewhere between 10 and 12 million. Let's take 9 million as an average. That would give you the odds of any one ferret being rabid of 1 in 22,500,000. If the ferrets were vaccinated with IMRAB (about 95% effective) the odds of any vaccinated ferret having rabies would be about 1 in 450,000,000. Now let's assume that the Eurpean studies are totally wrong and instead of not shedding the virus, let's assume a huge 30 day shedding period. That would give you the odds of envcountering any one vaccinated ferret during that shedding period of about 1 in 5,475,000,000. Again let's assume that the European studies were wrong and at least some developed the furious form of rabies. Let's say 1 in 50. Now you have the odds of encountering that vaccinated ferret with rabies during the shedding period and it attacking you, of 1 in 273, 750, 000,000. Finally the odds of a human developing rabies after being bitten by a rabid animal is about 1 in 6. Therefor the odds of getting rabies from that vaccinated ferret would be about 1 in 1,642,500,000,000. Dick Bossart [Posted in FML issue 1106]