From:
Sukie Crandall
Date: 2001-07-19 14:51:00 UTC
Subject: Re: distemper vaccines
What Bruce Williams is too modest to say is that he is the one
Richard Montali of the National Zoo contacted when it became
important to get the early info about this vaccine out to the ferret
public. The responses sent to Merial prevented the project from
being shelved.
Karen Purcell has been essential for getting news on this vaccine out
to the public and keeping people up-dated.
When you add 300 lab tested ferrets (with no reactions) to over 100
field tested animals whose people wanted to try this option (with one
ferret which reacted) you get 1 reaction in over 400 ferrets.
Compare that to the reported rate of 2 per one hundred that Fervac's
folks say they get and you have a drug that is at least 8 times safer
while effective and tested specifically for ferrets. This also
appears to be a great improvement over Galaxy.
It also is developed for use on many wild animals so can be important
when epizooics occur in species that are at risk such as BFFs, lions,
etc. (Lions are felines but get and die from canine distemper.)
Please, let your vets know.