From:
sukiecrandall@telocity.com
Date: 2001-10-02 04:20:00 UTC
Subject: Re: Note on a few Utah ferrets and a rabies question
What happens with rabies is that the disease follows a set of
nerves up to the brain; there it multiplies. Later it follows a set
down. It is after it follows a set down that it becomes contagious,
except to those feasting creatures which can contract it by eating
infected nerve tissue. Not all can contract it by that route; for
instance, ferrets and cats don't from what i have read. To me
this says that there can be a real sampling difficulty except when
going for tissue other than brain tissue. It might be infeasible, or
it might be do-able but so hard that it costs a mint, or it might be
very prone to error.
Of course, a vaccinated ferret will fall under a given state's
chosen way of observing the protocol which the Association of
Public Health Veterinarians has in place in the Compendium of
Animal Rabies Control. I sampled each state in 1998 for the
Morris Animal Foundation on a volunteer basis. In November of
1997 this vote of inclusion of protection for ferrets rapidly
followed some extensive CDC work ; and it since has had some
small modifications after it went into effect in 1998. Some states
have more strict rules than the Compendium calls for but the
Compendium IS respected and followed WHEN IT IS KNOWN
ABOUT. There remains the problem that some local health
departments, some shleters, and especially some
human-health providers and emergency rooms are clueless
with regards to rabies in animals: often not knowing when USDA
approved vaccines exist, or not knowing that the CDC work has
been done. There even was an article in a journal for emergency
personnel done long after the CDC work which said that no
vaccine and no CDC exists for ferrets in regard to rabies. That
supposedly is a reviewed journal, too, but it had those and
additional errors. This is why is makes sense fro everyone to go
the AVMA site (If memory serves it is http://www.avma.org ) and
go into the professional resources, then copy the three (3) parts
of the Compendoium, and send them to all emergency rooms
and medemerge facilities near you. It should be no surprise that
health departments such as that in NYC which hasn't done its
homework get confused when their own professional journals
don't have the latest information, or even info from over a decade
ago (The USDA approved IMRAB 3 for ferrets in 1990.), and don't
even know WHERE to find updated information.
--- In Ferret-Health-list@y..., Jacqueline Snyder <SNYDER@G...>
wrote:
> Rabies question (animals in general, not just ferrets) - Why are
animals
> that have bitten killed and a brain sample taken? More
accurately, why are
> they still handled this way? I recall this practice from my
childhood
> decades ago--surely someone has developed a less drastic
method of checking
> for the rabies organism?
>
> Wanted to share a good thing about a few Utah ferrets--I am
very happy to
> report that the four we received are in pretty good health, all
things
> considered. The vet check yesterday went quite well. They
range in age from
> 8, then 6, then 3, to 1 (approximately, of course, based on
teeth). They
> are all thin, but the vet believes that with good feeding, the
younger
> three will do well. The old fellow is so old that he is likely near
the end
> of his days. He's blind, very thin, and appears to have arthritis
in his
> spine. We'd thought two of the females might have ulcers, but it
looks as
> if they don't. One has gingivitis. No suspicions of disease so
far at all.
> No signs of anything contagious--no vomiting, diarrhea,
wheezing, nor any
> other disease symptoms.