Ferrets offer an advantage in nonclinical studies of anti-infective drugs because of their ability to be infected with and spread pathogenic microorganisms, especially viral strains, without the need for host adaptation.Additionally, the clinical symptoms exhibited by infected ferrets are very similar to those of humans. Although ferrets play a very important role in the research and development of antiviral drugs, the scope of their application remains limited. This may be related to the lack of corresponding national standards for laboratory animal feeding and application of ferrets as well as the lack of specific diagnostic and detection reagents. This paper summarizes the characteristics of ferrets as infectious disease models with a summary and analysis of the application direction of ferrets in anti-infective drug research. Our aim is to promote further standardization of the use of ferrets.