For those who think OPMV is a joke.

It's been about 2 months since we had a confirmed case of OPMV in our collection, the snake was a diamond which we had for 10 months.
We quarantined this diamond for 6 months along with some other snakes we got in at the same time.
Up to that point i had never had a sick snake in our collection in over 12yrs.
The diamond was in perfect heath when it arrived and was in perfect condtion until 6 days before we had it euthanised and sent away to for a histiopath to be done.
The diamond ate as normal on the saturday, it went down hill from then very quickly, it started showing nerulogical signs by tuesdays.
The results came back as consistent with OPMV and with the pathology done by one of the best in the country it was as good as done.

The morning after we got the results back from the diamond, we found our adult female bredli unside down in her cage convulsing. She had been a long term member of my collection and and been acting 'funny' for about 2 prior.
The bredli were housed next to the diamond and had been mating constantly for the past month.
The male still hasn't shown any signs of the virus.

OPMV is a real threat to our hobby, breeding loans IMO shouldn't be done, it's not worth the risk. It doesn't matter who you get your animals from, any new animals should be quarantined for at least 12months. All quarantined animals should have a separate set of feeding, cleaning and transporting equipment.

Disposable water bowls and disposable latex gloves are IMO a must for all quarantined animals.
All cages should be disinfected with F10 as well as feeding and transporting equipment, wash your hands between handling any snakes in your collection.
All this may sound a be extreme but if you have a large collection or even a collection of over 5 animals you should be taking OPMV serioulsy and taking precautions to prevent your collection being infected.
Quarantining all new animals for 12months is probably the most important thing that can be done.
You can lessen your chances by buying from well known breeders but in reality they can get it as easily as anyone.

Although our cases don't seem to be very agressive strains of the virus we won't be trading in any snakes for the next 12-14 months provided we don't get anymore cases.
All snakes we have bred this season are in a separate quarantined room away from the main collection so they aren't infected.

OPMV is a horrible virus which i wouldn't wish on any reptile keeper, if you love your herps you will start taking it seriously, this doesn't mean you have to panic about things but be very careful about what you buy and how you maintain your collection.
There has been case in every state in all species of snakes, no one can say they are safe to buy from somewhere like NT which i know of cases up there in the last 12 months.

Heres some pics of what OPMV does to snakes, this is my adult female bredli.

The morning after the diamonds results came back:


A few days later:

Thankyou for the information, reading this from someone that has first hand knowledge imo is important.

I am sorry you are going through this and hope your experience can educate others.

Sorry to hear, what does it acctually do to them?

That is a real shame to have happened.

Were there any other signs that you noticed prior to it happening. Colouration, preference of temperatures etc?

Any more information would be great.

And again, sorry for your loss

D

Hows that for a first post!!!! Thanks for the heads up BigSven.....just to add to that, hygiene would be in order also if ya's handle anyone else's herps....would be a way of infecting a single herp household....thus the reason even quarantining breeding loans from single herp collections needs to be adhered too
That must have been horrible watching ya snakes go through that!!!

sorry to hear that mate,hope all go's well for you in the next 12 to 14months.

No signs or syptoms were seen before hand, both snakes acted normally and within a few days they were fully over come by the virus.

Thank you

What a first post. People like you, who are suffering immensely should be congratulated for sharing such important information. Hopefully this info really hits home with all of us and through your loss we can benefit.

I had the luck of going to a VHS meeting and learning a bit about reptiles diseases from a Vet at Melbourne Zoo. What we learnt that night will hopefully save us from a lot of heart ache.

Thank you again for sharing your experience and from my family to yours I hope things improve.

As my kids and I learnt at the VHS meeting. Quarantine is everything.

All the best,

Shane and the gang:|

I don't know about anyone else but, OPMV has got me paranoid since I first started hearing about it a few months ago. Sorry to hear about your snakes, I hope no more come down with it.

say you have one snake, whats the generally accepted hygene rules to follow? ie wqsh you hands before and after handling.. anything else in particular?

It will get alot worse before it gets better . No-one wants to hear negative things about our hobbys , but with the dramatic increase in those owning animals and the ease of owning animals , it is bound to get worse quickly . It is sad to hear about animals dying from this disease , because when you do find out wht it died from , it can be to late for the rest of your collection . Jim,

Its terrible to hear of such a dreadful virus that I feel without doubt threatens the whole of the snake keeping community in such a manner.

I can honestly say I don't know a lot about it, as personally I don't keep snakes, and possibly they are doing something, and maybe this next comment is incorrect, but it makes you wonder if it was a virus effecting domestic animals such as dogs and cats whether there would be a lot more being done by our government in an effort to understand/control/treat it? From my little amount of reading I've done it seems to be more zoo's etc that are the ones doing all the work.......am I correct? Don't shoot me if I'm not.......

What an eye opener.Made me very paranoid.
Sorry for your loss and good luck with your other/future reptiles.

Thank you for sharing your story BigSven and I'm very sorry for your loss. Did you eunthase the Bredli also? It must be very hard to have something like this happen to your collection and it just goes to show we can't be too careful when it comes to quarantining our snakes and taking every precaution possible.

Thanks for sharing this BigSven, sorry for your loss.
I have lost Major Mitchell's to Bird FLu, another disease that is placing the avian hobby, and wild birds at risk.
Is there much in the way of research happening on OPMV?
There is an article in the latest Reptiles Australia Mag on OPMV. Another reason to not let exotics into the hobby. (heres an argunent on the way)
Cheers
Hendrix

Cheers Hendrix.

Hendrix,

While i agree Exotics could bring futher disease into Australia, i think its very possible that OPMV has a native origin to some degree....

I really hope this post from BigSven opens some peoples eyes

Just something to think about ? There are some different strains of opmv out there . While your snakes may show the sytoms shown , there are also some different sorts of sytoms which may occur that do not look like what is shown . Its a hard thing to try to get rid of once you have it , and you will never be 100% sure it is gone until a long time down the track . Good luck , Jim

Wasn't there someone else who had a 10 month old diamond with OPMV on here?

I'm sorry, so the tests are "consistent with OPMV" ??? what? no conclusive proof?
a vague "yea, we thinks it's that"?


sure as hell be a lot different if cats and dogs were dropping like flies.
shows how much they really don't give a crap about natives.
mind you, parks and wildlife show that every day.

wat does opmv stand for and sorry for your loss