Ophidian Paramyxovirus information

[olivehydra]

As I stated = the bug that causes OPMV has not been directly isolated. Other viruses may be mistaken for OPMV. So transmission study would be flawed. It is a waste of funds without the bug itself.

Otherwise look at a study on Colombovac and the efficacy of this vaccine that is already available.

I have looked into vaccines (including colombovac) and from what I have been told there is no vaccine - (definetely here, and "probably" overseas) that has ever been shown to work on reptiles. Colombovac is a bird vaccine I think???

 

[HerpDoc]

Biopsies on live animals may be useful but hard to achieve. Best area is lung tissue and this is technically difficult in snakes and obviously would result in a fair amount of trauma. Other issues with biopsy are that the virus maybe atypical in its behaviour, ie living in other tissue and may be missed by biopsy. In the United States can be diagnosed anti-mortem with a haemagglutintaion inhibition test that looks for antibodies. This however is not an indication of active infection but only means expose to the virus has occurred and a rise in antibody titre is required for diagnosis of active infection. Snakes take about 8 weeks to seroconvert so if they are tested during this time they may be falsely identified as negative.
As far as transmission is concerned the main mode is considered to be airbone with contaminated utensils and cage furniture also playing a significant role so the key to prevention is HYGIENE. Cant stress this enough, this also includes good quarantine protocols and controlling ectoparasites.

 

[Real Life Wildlife]

Keep this going, this stuff is a must and knowledge on how it is spread is essential, and control. Obviously prevention is the key but controling is the next step. Any references woudl be aprreciated. Thanks for all the info guys.

 

[-Peter]

Can food items be conclusively discounted as a source of infection as is the case with BSE and CJD. Could the similarities in the symptoms be indicative of a similar viral type or are they totally different?

 

[raptor]

Good on you Shane! Not only should more people be aware of the disease, they should also be aware that it's not some "mystery" disease that's only found in exotics. Also, that it's not only here, but that it's almost certainly here to stay. For those unfamiliar with Mader, yes, it's expensive (currently between $240-$300) but it's worth it's weight in gold. Another must have is the British Vetinary Association's Journal of Reptile Medicine.

 

[Real Life Wildlife]

From my knowledge the symptoms are related to the onset of other viruses or bacteria attacking the body as the immune system has dropped due to OPMV. For example a lung infection/neumonia can set in. This is a sign that could appear with a lot of viruses. Star Gazing and belly up are all signs which appear in several viruses and at the moment there is no easy way of testing the animals to see if it is OPMV until the animal dies or unless you want/can pay thousands of dollars to let a vet cut your live animals open to take a biopsy of some organs and that is still no garantee. I have been reccomended before to take microscope slides of the animals bacteria when they are healthy. This will then store what the animals bacteria is in the animals stomach when they are presumably helathy and then if you critter falls sick at a later date you can then refer back to that slide to see what bacteria are doing with in the animals stomach which can give you some sort of indication on whats going on. Talk to your vet about this and the correct way to do it. it helps!

 

[extreme_pets]

great read glad that someone else has also tried to tell people how important knowing your animals and quarratining all new animals before adding to you collections really is thanks for that great info

 

[rockman]

I think greater benefit will come out of information about possible transmission mediums. Unfortunately there is a great deal of irrational fear about OPMV at the moment. It wouldn't surprise me if the thought would cross a breeders mind "if I offer up information about the OPMV deaths I have had, will I be blacklisted in peoples minds".

I am not saying all breeders are thinking this, but no matter how well you can account for your biosecurity procedures and how well you've limited the impact people will still think "wasn't he the guy who had OPMV in his collection".

IMO (in my opinion) a simpler starting point would be to continue the education campaign within the reptile keeper community to remove the irrational fear and replace it with intelligent responsibilty. If people like olivehydra and nightowl continue to offer information about their keeping practices and OPMV outbreaks we can draw correlations between cases and identify potential transmission mediums.

Funny , when you read things like this , you would hope that people would do the right thing .
What about a breeder ( still a member on here ) , had OPMV for awhile now ( maybe 1-2 years ) and still selling snakes from his collection ? . Makes it a bit hard to trust anyone eh ? .
I think we will hearing about OPMV in the future alot more .
Good to try and keep this thread going for the newbies .
Cheers

 

[Paliadon]

Thanks for the info. It is great. Always good to keep abreast of these issues.

 

[GravelRash]

I've just had to euthanise the last 2.5yr old jungle of a trio bought late last yr with autopsy results stating OPMV.
Very disappointed and now have to keep an eye on the rest of my collection.

PLEASE people and breeders alike, if this totally TERMINAL virus has hit you recently, please reconsider selling your snakes that very seriously may be now carrying OPMV.

It is testable ONLY when the animal is too far gone-neurologically/respiritory(this is an extremely disturbing thing to observe...) or dead, and cannot and is not worth trying to medicate.

All of this heartache you can avoid passing on if you're doing herps for the right reasons and not just the $$$...

 

[cracksinthepitch]

"All of this heartache you can avoid passing on if you're doing herps for the right reasons and not just the $$$..."
You have hit the nail on the head there.........................

 

[GravelRash]

and there he is again in the for sale pages.....Floggn off his snakes at some ridiculous price, when he should have ALL his collection quarrantined !!!
very bold indeed....

 

[McGrimmis]

One concern with viruses like OMPV is the likelyhood of them getting out into the wild and devastating wild populations. There is at least one case of a wild CCP which appeared to have the disease. The snake was euthanased and the pathology done wasn't definitive but indicated OMPV was likely. I'm not aware of any cases of wild Inclusion Body Disease (IBD) yet but it will probably appear sooner or later.

Hygiene and quarantine are just so important. Try and quarantine all snakes brought into your collection for 12 months. It sounds like a long time but it can take this long for a disease to show up.

A good document from DECCW: Hygiene protocol for the control of disease in captive snakes
http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/nature/08200HygieneProtocolsCaptiveSnakes.pdf

Buy from reputable sellers. It is not worth trying to save a few dollars and buying from the dodgy dude down the road. To read the following is scary:

.... please reconsider selling your snakes that very seriously may be now carrying OPMV.

I hope that sellers are becoming more aware of disease issues and would like to think they would offer some follow up with husbandry advice for newbies. Too many times I've heard of people releasing their captive snakes (pythons esp.) out in the bush because they got to big and where scared to handle them. This is how these diseases are likely to get out.

 

[MinaAlen]

Thanks for that Nightowl. It's really useful.



sports turf

 

[jairusthevirus21]

Very scary... reading this should be in the terms and agreements of registering to APS! LOL

 

[Pythoninfinite]

Except that we now know that OPMV is not the primary pathogen in snakes in Australia - indeed no samples have ever proved positive to OPMV in Oz.

Jamie

 

[Bluetongue1]

+1. The relavent virus in Australia was mistaken for OPMV, because they share a number of obvious clinical signs and symptoms, is Sunshine Virus. At this point in time the lastest available information on this virus, authoured by Dr Shane Simpson, from Karingal Vet Hospital, is to be found in the current edition of the Scales & Tails magazine.

Blue

 

[thepythonguy]

so the opmv that gravelrash is referring to above was actually the sunshine virus ? not opmv which was confirmed in the autopsy

 

[-Peter]

hang on, Would ophidian paramyxovirus be a generic term encompassing all ophidian paramyxovirii?

 

[Pythoninfinite]

so the opmv that gravelrash is referring to above was actually the sunshine virus ? not opmv which was confirmed in the autopsy

To my knowledge, OPMV has never been actually "confirmed" as the cause of death in snakes in this country. As I understand it, samples sent overseas produced a similar result, which is basically "terminal disease with symptons CONSISTENT with OPMV..." - and as such, is far from confirmation. Virology is a hugely complex field, but from what I've been told, the Sunshine Virus can be tested for in live animals, which is a fantastic breakthrough, and who knows, it may even lead to the possibility of a vaccine...

Jamie