Correct procedures would include but not be limited to:
Not cross contaminating yours and your friends' collections, by not taking traces of reptile bodily fluids, mites, faeces etc between collections, by thoroughly washing hands, arms and wearing fresh clothes etc if you have been handling one collection and then want to interact with a different collection. Make sure you can trust people who have reptiles, when they tell you they are clean-some people are lazy and will tell you what you want to hear as if they are not worried about risk.
Not buying from different breeders and keepers, unless you have somewhere to keep new reptiles isolated from current reptiles, for an appropriate quarantine period, which may be as long as 2+ years, depending on what is currently recommended by experienced veterinarians. There is little point in quarantining something for a short period only, if you are concerned about Sunshine Virus and other similar fatal diseases, as the animal may still be sick even though it appears fine during your short quarantine period.
Consider if it is worth pairing your reptiles with other people's reptiles, for breeding purposes. The jag thing is a bit scary as people want to put a good male jag over many females and lend them to friends etc, so the risk is higher for spreading disease (if it is there).
Consider if it is worth buying from people who are constantly getting new reptiles from different sources, as you have no way of knowing if there is something nasty in their animals or not, and neither do they.
Keeping animals isolated from each other in the home requires you to think about if you are cross contaminating with cleaning cloths, sinks (washing everything at same time in one sink) tongs, food packaging, cacium powder containers, water bowls, frozen rats that have been handled after touching one animal and then feeding to another, handling one animal and then going to handle others without washing hands and considering if clothing is contaminated.
If you want to be serious about quarantine and risk management, you kind of have to go full on or you will end up going to effort that doesn't really protect your collection from anything, and your results would be due to luck and not your practices.
it was very helpful. I read that some take longer than 12 months to manifest. Are there any ways to diagnose viruses sooner before symptoms show eg: pathology at vet check up?
