OPMV and Breeding Loans

[Nome]

lol, okay APL I was just referring to your post below when I said 'arcing up'. Sorry if I misunderstood.

ppl in here really shat the hell out of me i never said anything of the sort that there isnt anything like that here in darwin whether there is or not i just havent heard about it its wat i was saying ppl jump to the wrong conclusions of ppls comments which lead to ppl being nasty or making harsh remarks i aint close minded nor am i frickin naive adbacus you certainly dont know anything about me to make such remarks..... if you dont have anything nice to say then dont say it at all........i will state it again I DID NOT SAY THAT THERE WAS NOT ANY CASES IN DARWIN JUST THAT i HAVENT HEARD OF IT HERE.......Understand english?????

Back on topic.
What I find the hardest about this disease, it's like Boa said here or some other post, overseas they just take their live snakes and get them tested...it makes it so hard that we dont' have access to that kind of test here, we have to wait till it's developed. Even testing them when they are dead isn't that easy here too, we had to pay $450 for the histiopath alone on the dead diamond to get it tested, money we certainly didn't have to throw around, and most people wouldn't, big reason people don't test their snakes when they die from suspicious symptoms. Ive heard it's cheaper other places, I think we payed more to use IDXX which are the best and a result from them can be basically guaranteed as conclusive.

We are still 2 years at least away from getting a live snake test. While things are like this, 100s of collections could have OPMV in them and not even know. How many people you hear of losing a snake to a respiratory infection? That's one big way that OPMV manifests. I've rarely heard of any of those people getting the dead snake tested. That's what is scary, the amount of snakes that do die from assumed causes, but aren't tested....the vet we used (reputable herp vet) reckons that it 's in heaps of collections without the owners realizing.

 

[Australis]

Location means nothing, Anywhere people keep snakes OPMV will follow.............

 

[Ramsayi]

Pretty sure that in Western Australia IBD was detected around 7 years ago.Long before keeping was made legal in that state.Isolation certainly doesnt guarantee that a state is clean,afterall you couldn't get any more isolated that WA.

 

[junglepython2]

Does any one have data on risk to other herps in the same collection if one becomes infected?
ie is it 100% if they were never isolated or is it unknown?

 

[nightowl]

I think it is a bit hard to gather precise figures due to people's different levels of quarantine. If an infected animal was to physically come into contact with a 'clean' animal the possibility of infection would be extremely high. OPMV has been spread via handling equipment and is thought to be air born, so to not isolate a new animal is too risky.

 

[rockman]

yes australis i know that.....but thats the thing i havent gotten any other pythons at the moment only my coastal and yes i do know about wat i need to do....thanks australis i dont have any other python enclosure with two in it just the one per enclosure and if breeding time comes i was told by a breeder/seller here in darwin that if i wanted to breed my coastal that either mine or a male would be qurantined for 3mths b4 introducing them......whether thats true is another story.. but i so far am not getting any pythons from down south all are born and bred here in darwin

Not being rude , but , 3 - 4 months before getting the animals may not help you at all . If you ask your serious breeder of 12 years if he has any deaths in his collection that he did send away to be tested , that would tell you wether to trust the situation you will be in .

 

[Gabi_79]

So the only way to get around this disease is 12 month quarantine?

does anyone know how widespread it is in NSW?

 

[rockman]

I think it is a bit hard to gather precise figures due to people's different levels of quarantine. If an infected animal was to physically come into contact with a 'clean' animal the possibility of infection would be extremely high. OPMV has been spread via handling equipment and is thought to be air born, so to not isolate a new animal is too risky.

Just a simple thing of cleaning 2 different water bowls at the same time , could be enough to pass anything on . Your mate coming over and helping to clean your cages with you , after he has handled his snakes , without cleaning his hands / shirt / arms , whatever . When is enough , enough . Jim

 

[MoreliaMatt]

OPMV has been spread via handling equipment and is thought to be air born

ive heard that it is thought to have been airbourne too.....

so technically if a snake is quarantined in a seperate room in the same house then there is still a chance of infection to the rest of a collection then???

man this disease is scary!

 

[Jones of the Jungle]

I once read that you should shower and change your clothes between maintaining new pythons and previous pythons in your collection. I also was told to have one set of tweezers/tongs for each reptile for feeding.

I also have been told that a guy in South Australia was selling reptiles that had advanced opmv, these repitles died wiithin only a few weeks of the new owners obtaining them. Appparently he tried to deny it even after a patholegy test came back positve to opmv. He also sold a reptile interstate which died and the test came back positve. These are the type of people that we all need to be aware of. They obviously knew that they had the disease in there collection, but were just trying to recover costs as quickly as possible for their own selfish means. These type of people aren't in it for the love of it but for the wealth of it.