INTEROFFICE MEMORANDUM DATE: November 26, 1997 TO: County Health Department Administrators / Directors Environmental Health Directors THROUGH: Richard G. Hunter, PH.D Deputy State Health Officer FROM: Richard S. Hopkins, M.D., M.S.P.H. Bureau Chief, State Epidemiologist SUBJECT: Rabies Quarantine Period Now Recognized for Ferrets ACTION REQUIRED: Please comply with policy change below. EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY --------------------------------------------------------- Based on the results of recent viral shedding studies of ferrets conducted by the U.S. Public Health Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other collaborators, the National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians Inc. is recommending that ferrets be managed in the same way that dogs and cats are managed. These studies using strains of rabies isolates from skunks, raccoons, coyotes and several species of bats have shown that ferrets like dogs and cats, rarely excrete virus in their saliva more than a few days before developing clinical signs and symptoms. Therefore, the conclusion has been that the same quarantine and observation period is appropriate as for dogs and cats. The Florida Department of Health and it's multiagency Rabies Control Advisory Committee has now endorsed the recommendations of the National Association of State Public Health Veterinarians Inc., which will be published soon in the 1998 edition of the National Compendium of Animal Rabies Control. Effective as of this date, all county health departments need to quarantine ferrets that bite or expose people and observe them for (10) days (unless owners want them tested for rabies). Additionally, a ferret bitten by a rabid or suspect rabid animal must be quarantined for 45 days IF the ferret has been appropriately vaccinated for rabies by a licensed veterinarian OR 180 days if the ferret is not currently vaccinated. County health departments should notify animal control agencies and Humane Society affiliates in their jurisdiction about this change in departmental policy. These changes will be detailed in the new 1998 Florida Prevention and Control Compendium now being printed. If you have questions about this issue, please call Dr. William Bigler, Special Studies Epidemiologist; Dr. Steven Wiersma, Deputy State Epidemiologist; or Dr. Richard S. Hopkins, Bureau Chief and State Epidemiologist, at (850) 488 - 2905 or SunCom 278 - 2905 RSH/WJB/cgp [Posted in FML issue 2456]