Ophidio paramyxovirus

[spotlight]

hi,
does any one know how many collections around australia have been affected by this virus or any other info that might help us all.

[rockman]

Hi Spotlight , there are alot of different strains of the virus , the death of alot of snakes might be from the virus , but does not get picked up being the virus . Lots of different symtons ? How many people are willing to pay a vet maybe $ 300 - 500 to find out what killed their snake ? The diease can be in your collection for up to 12 months unnoticed . Not much fun eh !

[olivehydra]

I find this and similar topics very interesting and am surprised that they are not discussed more often on this forum. I tried to get a thread going a while back about IBD but it didnt really fly. I dont know of any confirmed cases of OPMV personally. Until recently I used to think that IBD had only appeared in a very few number of collections containing exotics, but on my last visit to the vet was told otherwise. I had a sick python and was kind of shocked when the vet started asking alot of IBD, OPMV related questions. I knew where the line of questioning was going and so told him it was not the case with MY snake :wink: (it turned out I was correct). The vet went on to tell me that the reason for his stressful line of questioning was that he had had "many" confirmed cases of IBD through his surgery alone and that he considered it a "common" occurence now.

I dont know if some people feel shame or something but I have never heard anyone say "yes I've had IBD or OPMV in my collection". Aside from possibly poor quarentine methods I dont think it is a reflection on anyones husbandry but rather an example of bad luck and why uncontrolled imports of exotics shouldnt occur. Having said that I suppose it might be considered financial suicide if a breeder were to announce that they had had an outbreak but everything was fine now. I dont know how many people would feel "safe"??

Just my thoughts, and I would like to hear other peoples.

[rockman]

ask the question to most herp people that have had a snake die ? do you know what it died from , properly ! start looking into all the sympthons that may occur and then have a good think about it . what about the different strains of the virus ? how long do you quaintine your snakes for , before you feel they are safe , 2 months , 6 months or 12 months . from a business point of view , it would be the right thing to do , saying something , but your business would turn to crap overnight . Would you tell some-one that you might have aids , its not that much different , eh !

[spotlight]

its getting harder and harder to get hold of new snakes for breeding in your collections worrying about bringing this virus in and as you say breeders will not admit to having or thinking they have it in there collections, i keep a lot of snakes pythons and elapids and the slightest flu signs scare me but what do you do ,it also concerns me that no one in Australia is trying to find a cure for this virus the only info i can find of work being done is to make Ophidio paramyxovirus a super virus on Gwam to wipe out the brown tree snake.not to find a cure ,you can bet if they were cute and cuddley there would be more work being done .

[Linus]

I saw a doco on the brown tree snakes of Guam. The whole problem started with a few tree snakes arriving through the ports as boat stow aways I believe. Now they want to introduce a virus that leads to a prolonged painful death to the snake. Should a snake manage to escape the isalnd on a boat or a plane it will carry the diease to wherever it lands. Seems like a big risk to me.

The advocate of this plan said it is no risk because the snake would most likely be dead by the time it gets to the new country. Hmmm...good risk management plan... :

Spotlight? off topic but what is that in your avatar...looks like an albino coastal taipan..

[peterescue]

Got to say I fully support the removal of invasive species on Guam, though they should start with the US military base first.
OPMV and IBD are; while not common, around in collections. The vet saying he has had a lot of cases through his surgery. I tend to be sceptical. Dead snakes with symptoms similar to those two, probably. The terms are just blanket at the momnet probably covering a myriad of diseases. Im told that OPMV needs to be sent out of the country. Thats expensive and a lot of paper work. Not sure about IBD.
The Dept Ag keeps info on these diseases as I think they are notifiable. There have been several persons who are known to have it in there collections.

[spotlight]

thanks for the reply the snake in my avatar is a brown tree snake i found dead on our local road it was pure white with blue eyes a real stunner im stil looking for more they have been sited by locals in that area ,note looks better in real life

[Linus]

Got to say I fully support the removal of invasive species on Guam

Yep agreed. But realeasing a virus into a wild population that could conceivably spread to other parts of the world seems a bit rash.

brown tree snake i found dead on our local road

So I was close then Thats why I work in an office and not as a snake catcher

It's a nice looking snake. Love to see a live one.

[The Rock]

There is no cure for a virus, think about the common cold.? Fortunatly OPMV is a very fragile virus and will not live off a host for very long, so safe hygenic cleaning and handling practices will stop the spread of this vivus thru collections. Unfortunately the same cannot be said about IBD a true horror of a pathogen.
I had an animal sent to me a couple of years ago that showed sus symptoms and was sent instantly to the vet and as it happened it was OPMV. Very luck, but it goes to show how easily it can get around. And NO there is no OPMV of IBD in my collection, I am way to vigilant and fussy in my cleaning and handling procedures, as everyone should be.

[tia]

I wont hesitate in saying I have had this problem. I had a autopsy done on my coastal and it was confirmed he had pv virus. I had spent months treating a recently aquired bredli for phenomia, and lost her. When a second became ill I decided on a autopsy. Only just starting in this hoby it was and still very disheartning.

[soulweaver]

what are the symptoms for opmv??

[Morelia_Hunter]

Had a read in my book by Mader. The disease presents itself in various ways. Very difficult to diagnose as such as there are so many different symptoms. Time from exposure to death is 6 to more than 10 weeks. The infection may overwhelm the immune systemwith death occuring prior to to a detectable antibody response. Anorexia, Hypophagia, and regurgitation are the earliest signs and have been seen up to 7 months prior to any other signs of disease. Lots more facts but those seem to be the main ones. Nothing can be done. All you can do is keep new arrivals seperate and monitor them for strange behaviour. Head tremmors etc...

[peterescue]

Originally Posted by tia

I wont hesitate in saying I have had this problem. I had a autopsy done on my coastal and it was confirmed he had pv virus. I had spent months treating a recently aquired bredli for phenomia, and lost her. When a second became ill I decided on a autopsy. Only just starting in this hoby it was and still very disheartning.

when you say PV, what do you mean, Parvo? thats another one.
The thing is that almost everything that can go wrong with your snake will show up the same basic set of symptoms.

[spotlight]

whatching new snakes before introducing into your collection is a waist of time because they can be carriers spreading the virus but not being affected by it so what do you do?