The NASPHV Rabies Compendium Committee will hold its annual meeting October 10-11. This is probably the only real chance over the next 12 months to get a change for the better in guidelines for managing ferret bite cases -- and the only chance to ensure against a possible change for the worse! NASPHV does not believe the opinions of "laymen" matter where public health is concerned. The only way to get the committee's attention, I believe, is to get veterinarians who have active ferret practices to write the people directly involved and let them know they consider the guidelines too harsh and not justified by the data. Consequently, I earnestly ask that ALL of you contact the ferret vets with whom you are in contact urging them to write to any or all of those officials (names and addresses given below). And I ask that you contact all the other ferret owners you know to get them to urge their vets to write too. A personally drafted letter will probably have more impact than a form letter, but vets are busy people and some may prefer to sign a preprinted letter. So it might be a good idea to have one in hand to give him or her. I will be happy to email a "model letter" to anyone on request, and will also be posting a printable copy of it on the Rabies Information Page on the Web (http://members.gnn.com/AcmeFerret/lifepage/rabies.htm). Every vet's letter should contain at least these key points: 1. The Committee's current guidelines are responsible for the unnecessary killing of hundreds of housebound, properly vaccinated, rabies-free ferrets each year in this country. 2. The incidence of rabies in ferrets (only 4 cases nationally from 1989 to 1994) is much lower than dogs, cats or horses, and ferrets have NEVER transmitted rabies to a human. 3. Public health authorities do not routinely recommend euthanization for testing of horses that bite humans, even though there is no recognized shedding period for horses either; as ferrets are 17 times less likely to contract rabies than horses, they should be treated as posing a lesser, not greater risk, than horses. 4. Research has shown again and again that infected ferrets rarely shed the virus at all in their saliva, and never before onset of symptoms. 5. Research has shown again and again that once symptoms appear, the ferret dies within 7 days. This means an observation period IS reasonable, as a verdict CAN be reached in time to begin postexposure rabies treatment for a human bite victim, should that prove necessary. 6. While further liberalization will hopefully be possible once the CDC-sponsored raccoon-strain shedding study is completed, the Committee should act NOW to ease its policy. There is already more than enough evidence to justify an observation period for visibly healthy, provably vaccinated ferrets that have a well documented history of confinement. The addresses to write are as follows: Dr. Kathleen Smith DVM President, NASPHV, Inc P.O. Box 118 Columbus, OH 43266 Charles E. Rupprecht, VMD, PhD Building 15 Clifton Campus Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) 1600 Clifton Rd. G-13 Atlanta GA 30333 Mary Beth Leininger DVM President, AVMA 1931 N Meacham Rd. Schaumburg IL 60173-4360 Dr. Lyle Vogel, DVM, MPH AVMA Staff Consultant Council on Public Health and Regulatory Veterinary Medicine 1931 N Meacham Rd. Schaumburg IL 60173-4360 Suzanne R. Jenkins, VMD, MPH Virginia Department of Health Office of Epidemiology P.O. Box 2448 Richmond, VA 23218. If possible, get your vet to give you a copy of his or her letter, - better yet, offer to drop it in the mail yourself and to make copies to the other addressees: then you can be *sure* it gets mailed. We'd also appreciate an info copy. If your vet is not too timorous, ask him or her if they would allow the letter to be posted on the Internet, or their name to be listed on an "honor roll" of veterinarians that have written in on this issue. I will be glad to put them up on the Rabies Information Page. I cannot over-emphasize the importance of getting vets on the record on this issue. Many state and local officials, even legislators, are too intimidated by the Compendium Committee to do anything but endorse euthanization of every ferret involved in a bite case. Just recently I talked with Dr. William Bigler, Florida Health Department senior epidemiologist, who told me that although, in theory, the decision is always made on a case by case basis, in practice he has never seen a case where the evidence of continuous confinement was strong enough to spare the ferret's life! We are up against a public health bureaucracy that does not consider itself accountable to the general lay public. And Dr. Jenkins, the driving spirit behind NASPHV Inc. (National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians), is a zealous enemy of ferrets as companion animals, as evidenced by the strident tone of the NASPHV "Statement on Ferrets." I am not at all convinced that Jenkins intends to bring the shedding study series to closure anytime soon. Pressure from their peer group is probably the only way, in the short term, to get any change for the better. Howard Davis Humane Affairs Coordinator League of Independent Ferret Enthusiasts (LIFE) [Posted in FML issue 1686]