Jazmyn wrote: >About 1 ferret in 4-5 years has been found positive for rabies (nearly >every case from giving the wrong vacine) out of (hard to estimate numbers >of ferrets) maybe 800 million to 1 billion ferrets in the nation... The numbers I have are a bit different. 21 ferrets confirmed positive with rabies since 1958, as follows: 1958 Kentucky 1978 South Carolina 1981 North Dakota 1982 Kansas, Virginia 1983 Wisconsin 1985 California, Michigan 1986 DC, North Dakota, South Carolina 1987 DC, Iowa 1992 South Carolina, Virginia 1993 Virginia 1994 Maryland 1995 Connecticut, New York 1996 Florida, Arkansas So the *recent* statistic, which is what we should be looking at, is about 1-2 ferrets annually in the US are being confirmed positive with rabies. I haven't heard about any confirmed positives for 1997. Of the cases I was able to get info on (only a few), the indication was that the ferret was unvaccinated and exposed to rabies while loose/ran away. Not from the 'wrong vaccine'. I am curious to know where/which cases you heard the wrong vaccine was indicated as the cause (as I said I only have info on a few cases). I'm interpreting what you wrote as meaning that they were infected from the vaccine itself (this should never happen from a killed virus vaccine such as Imrab 3), and not that the wrong vaccine (e.g., parvo instead of rabies), failed to protect them. >Roughly between 500 to 1500 dogs a year in the US are found positive for >rabies...out of posibly 3+ billion dogs Your numbers are way off here...confirmed positives for dogs from the JAVMA Rabies Surveillance in the US for the years indicated are: 1994 153 1993 130 1992 182 For more stats (with references) , see Dick Bossarts paper online at: http://www.acmeferret.com/infobank/research.html Earlier years are similar for dogs. I don't have the 'official' population stats for dogs handy, but I'm tempted to question that too. Troy Lynn Eckart had used a population estimate of 50 million in her paper on rabies. (Send email with GET RABIES TLESTUFF FERRET as the message to [log in to unmask] to get a copy emailed to you.) >out of (hard to estimate numbers of ferrets) maybe 800 million to 1 billion >ferrets in the nation...> The ferret population estimates for the USA I usually see tossed around range from 4-12 million. I've never seen any estimate anywhere near what you are stateing for the USA. So I'm curious as to where you got those numbers. Please, always verify your stats before stating them as facts. If they are likely to be questioned/challenged, include your source. Otherwise, when a health dept official spots errors in those, they will, IMO likely question whether *anything* you said is true. The good info will get tossed out with the bad. -Ilena Ayala Rabies Resources for Ferret Lovers are at: http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/ilena/rabies.htm [Posted in FML issue 2044]