A few months ago I received a positive snake. I had hoped that quarantine would have prevented the spread but unfortunately it did not even though no shared tools were ever used and the positive animal was dealt with last and it never left the quarantine zone. I suspect I must have transfered spores through contamination of the sink/sink handles or perhaps the door handles or clothes. For a few weeks after the animal in quarantine was euthanized, I had one snake show clear symptons of regurigation and slow digestion which resolved after moving down to a slightly lower prey size (digestion was still slower than I’d expect though). This snake tested negative on a gastric lavange and cloacal sample went to University of Florida. It also tested negative on 3 or so swabs sent to RAL. However, the next snake over which completely symptomatic did test postive on the 3rd sample I’ve sent to RAL. There is one other snake I suspect is positive but only regurged rodent fur so I’m not terribly sure and plan to euthanize it and have a necropsy performed to get a final answer on it.
Obviously the sample size is too small to draw any real conclusions but a few things I’ve noted through this experience:
- It’s surprising to me that the gastric lavange came back negative. One of the studies I had read showe 95% accuracy in detection. The snake was small (too small for gastric biopsy) so perhaps the size of the snake could be a factor.
- The idea I’ve often heard floated is that asymptomatic animals would be shedding less oocycts than symptmatic snakes. My testing results do not seem to match this expectation. Both snakes I’ve gotten positive on were pretty much asymptomatic yet the fully symptomatic snake tested negative on all tests fecal and gastric lavange.
- The idea that quarantining snakes will prevent the spread of disease. I am quite careful with using gloves (and removing them properly), regularly washing hands, and I don’t do any of the common practices I see other poeple doing like reusing sponges in water dishes or throwing them all in a big tub yet none of this was sufficient to prevent spread and unfortunately it will take an extremely long time to determine the extent of spread. If it’s able to spread under the conditions I keep the snakes, I can only imagine what happens in wholesale and exporter conditions.
- I’ve talked to more people with crypto problems in the past 5 years than in the all of the other years of reptile keeping combined. I’m not entirely sure if this is because of a small number of people who I know are knowingly continuing to spread it or if the testing is now allowing us to identify the cause. I’ve kept hundreds of reptiles over decades and I’ve never seen these symptoms before. I do suspect it is currently circulating at a higher rate but studies from around the world show a high rate of detection so it may be that I’ve just been extremely lucky in the past. The primary symptom seems to be a slightly slower digestion rate than one would anticipate and that’s something I would consider high risk for infection going forward regardless of any test results.