How do you prevent Cryptosporidium from spreading between snakes?

Colubrids Corn Snakes
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Hi everyone, I wanted to ask about Cryptosporidium infections in snakes, especially reptile-associated species that can cause disease in snakes.

From what I understand, there still isn’t a consistently reliable treatment that can completely eliminate Cryptosporidium infection in reptiles. Some medications may help suppress the infection, reduce clinical signs, or lower shedding, but the animal may still remain infected, so recurrence and transmission are still major concerns.

My main question is: if one snake is confirmed positive for Cryptosporidium, how easy is it for the infection to spread to other snakes in the collection?

For example, if I:

* never share feeding tools, water bowls, hides, cleaning equipment, or other enclosure items,

* keep the positive snake in a separate enclosure,

* wash my hands or change gloves after handling it,

* remove feces and contaminated substrate carefully,

* and disinfect the enclosure and surrounding area regularly,

is the transmission risk still considered high?

Would keeping the positive snake in the same reptile room but using strict biosecurity usually be enough, or is it better to keep it in a completely separate room?

I’m also interested in real-world experience. For those who have dealt with confirmed Cryptosporidium in snakes, did it ever spread to other snakes despite not sharing equipment and using good hygiene?

I’m mainly asking about reptile-associated Cryptosporidium that can infect and cause disease in snakes, including both snake- and lizard-associated species, rather than mammalian Cryptosporidium.

Any practical experience or advice would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

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Absolutely not. You can never be sure enough that you aren’t transmitting a microscopic organism through physical contact unless you are being heavily strict about thorough sanitization and careful handling- Crypto can travel through airborne dust particles. Cryptosporidium serpentis is also very resistant against standard disinfecting agents like Bleach.

I’m going to be honest here, its not a good idea to have an infected animal in possession, the best and kindest thing you can do is humane euthanasia of the infected animal- even if they are asymptomatic. It’s not worth the risk of infecting perfectly healthy animals having an infected individual in vicinity, when there is no cure to an almost always fatal illness. No one is realistically going to take in an animal that is infected through rescue or adoption and risk their animals either.

Yes, like mentioned before its almost impossible to ensure everything is fully sanitized. It is a highly contagious illness.

@kevinlewis does.

Contaminated enclosures/enclosure items need to be destroyed and disposed of.

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About a week ago, I bought a pair of juvenile corn snakes. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a separate quarantine enclosure available at the time, so I placed them directly into separate drawers of my rack system without a proper quarantine period.

Each drawer is physically separate, but they do have ventilation holes. Unfortunately, one of the two snakes has since tested positive for Cryptosporidium by PCR.

I have not shared feeding tools, water bowls, hides, cleaning equipment, or other items between this snake and the snakes in the other drawers.

Given this situation, do you think there is a significant risk that the apparently healthy snakes in the other drawers could have been exposed or infected simply from being housed in the same rack system, especially through the ventilation holes? I’m particularly concerned about the possibility of oocysts being carried between drawers by dust or other airborne particles.

I’d really appreciate hearing about your experience with this kind of situation.

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It sucks but you are probably best off to have them euthanized and quarantine the rest of your snakes for a long period before adding any others- maybe test at random…you need to let the breeder know and ideally THEY need to stop selling sick snakes and putting people’s collections at risk. If it were me I would be naming and shaming them to warn others… Unfortunately not everyone is ethical and snakes can carry it for a long time without showing symptoms.

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By placing them in the same rack system, all other snakes in that rack have been exposed and have the potential for infection. You’re going to need to test all snakes in that rack, be very watchful of symptoms in the snakes that were closest to the infected individual. You’ll likely need to dispose of the bins, if the rack is made from metal you can probably save it by cleaning it with 5% ammonia or 3-5% hydrogen peroxide and let that sit for 20 minutes.

You need to notify the person you bought these animals from ASAP if you have not done so already that a snake you bought from them tested positive for Crypto.

The infected individual needs to be euthanized. There is no saving it and its just going to continue to pose a significant risk to you other snakes. Quarantine the rest of your collection and do not buy any more snakes for a long while.

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I feel for you. I’ve watched too many YouTubes on snake diseases at this point and I’ll definitely say this one is a scary one.

If it’s any comfort, from what I have read and researched, there isn’t a 100% consensus about euthanasia (although most people insist taking the safest route like @cmsreptiles has suggested). Dr. Robert Ossiboff at UofFL has a fascinating video to watch here. He says not to euthanize, and says there are reasonable ways to keep it from spreading through your collection, but he’s probably an outlier. I know his position isn’t standard and most people want to guarantee safety with euthanasia, so I do respect whatever you choose. If you’re not breeding and selling, you may be fine to wait it out. If you have animals regularly leaving your collection, though, it’s absolutely irresponsible to risk it, IMO. If you decide to live with one who is known positive but asymptomatic, please don’t touch your friends’ reptiles, either!

Dr Ossiboff does say that crypto itself can’t pass through the air (I think it’s this video, anyway, but could be another where he says that) UNLESS you have flies. They land on the stool and then go from bin to bin, so if you have those buzzing around your snake room, the other snakes absolutely have been exposed.

Cleaning bin supplies is also a challenge because crypto can continue to live quite happily on the scrubbies, faucet handles, and soap pumps, and sinks. If you use the same things to clean all your water bowls, for example, your other reptiles have absolutely been exposed even if you keep the water bowls in each respective bin.

Anyway, if you decide to watch the whole video, you may find yourself more than a little nervous—about more than just crypto. This video is the one that convinced me to always practice biosecurity with all my snakes forever regardless if I see symptoms or not. I’ve never been much of a germiphobe until watching that, but now I’m a safe-rather-than-sorry girl! Gloves all the time for everyone! Haha.

Anyway, other things I’d suggest (I do many of them just because I’m a germiphobe now):

-Yes, ideally the animal will be in a separate room altogether, but chances may be high that your other animals have had at least one minor exposure, so at this point it may not help to move the infected animal. Testing to ensure there is zero crypto in your entire collection is of utmost importance. How many animals are in your collection? It may be expensive, but absolutely necessary to test them all.

-Testing can’t just be a one and done, unfortunately. Because crypto sheds intermittently, it is hard to catch (the reason they call it crypto). To improve odds of shedding so the crypto will show, Dr Ossiboff recommends testing any stools during and right after brumation. Those stools will have higher odds of getting an accurate result. Furthermore, it is possible to get false positives. Always double check with a second reputable lab to make sure you got the right result. I would suggest multiple tests in a row to increase assurance even more. The $ sucks, but it’s the right thing to do.

-You can also try this after scrubbing your water tubs: Mammalian crypto dies at 180F in under 15 min. If you have stainless steel or PP #5 plastics, you can bake everything that has been in the bin at 220F for 20 min and be reasonably sure reptile strains of crypto have died. Put the baked goods into the oven, take them out with gloves, and don’t let them touch anything but the new bin it will live in.

-Steam mops are good for sanitizing floors. Not perfect, but better than nothing.

-Use at least 6%-12-% Hydrogen Peroxide, let it sit, staying wet, for 30 min before wiping off. Bleach is no good for crypto.

Lastly, let me say again that I’m so sorry you’re going through this. By way of comfort, albeit small: I read about a long-time reptile vet sharing a study (sorry I don’t have the source) about some animals who were intentionally inoculated with high doses of crypto. 45% never became infected, though. So apparently, a healthy reptile—and nearly half of them are healthy enough—can fight off the disease before it gets a toe hold, even if modern medicine does not have a way to cure it.

Best of luck. Keep us posted.

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@snakesofshadowlake It’s good to see some encouragement in this awful situation… I may have been too blunt in my responses but I always see Cryptosporidium cases with upmost seriousness because of how bad it can get and how easily it can spread.

@kingxc1128 I still stand by euthanizing the infected snake, considering you have other snakes in a rack, as well in the fact that you’ve bred in the past seeing your other post about the egg.

If you just had the one snake the situation might be a bit different (though you wouldn’t be able to interact or purchase other reptiles anyway) since you could probably either ease the symptoms in the snake if they were symptomatic or just be very careful about an asymptomatic case.

If you have offspring you were intending to sell- don’t. At least for a long long time and that you are absolutely sure your collection isn’t contaminated, be prepared to keep them potentially lifelong.

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Just a reminder that if you want to openly name and shame, it is against the guidelines here. There are uhm. More direct or private ways to message if you get my drift.

I do however recommend euthanizing the infected animal as well instead of risking further spread. Testing everyone would be my recommendation. Unfortunately you may get a few false negatives because early infection may not have enough of a sample size.

Also, if this animal was purchased on MorphMarket, I would recommend contacting the breeder and customer support

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I ditto this 100%. No unsuspecting buyer deserves to get a risk like this in their collection. It’s definitely in the best interest of the entire hobby if your due diligence with a fine tooth comb before any animal leaves your care.

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Rightfully so. It’s a terrible plague. Hopefully smart scientists will find a solution soon.

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We have, quarantine and testing. All the science in the world isn’t going to help if people don’t follow basic biohazard protocols

The same people that don’t bother to quarantine or test their animals are going to be same people that wouldn’t get their snakes vaccinated if there was a vaccine or will try to DIY home remedies instead of paying for a treatment through a vet if there was a treatment because “vets overcharge”.

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I can see MorphMarket wanting to protect themselves from lawsuits and I can see how it could already be in someone’s collection and not caused by new animals after all, but I would also want to know if it were someone I was considering buying from.

@snakesofshadowlake I watched the video you linked with Dr Ossiboff and one of the things he said that stuck with me is that we would know of a lot more cases if there wasn’t an element of shame involved when it’s something that can happen even if the person has perfect keeping protocols. So Name and Shame wasn’t the right way to put it but I don’t know that I would be able to be silent or only let buddies know if this had happened to me.

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Yeah, I think people are rightly scared of both shame and black-balling. I agree it’s VERY important to tell people you’ve sold to about the risk involved so they can be appropriately protected and take any extra quarantine measures they might not have done otherwise. But I can sympathize with the reasons why people may not be upfront about it. I can even sympathize with the fact that some people genuinely might not know their collection has it. It’s a tough situation all around for those affected, but it could get so much better if people were open and honest—and it’s up to the hobbyists themselves to make that culture feel safe enough to do so.
@chesterhf, it makes sense if you’ve seen some bad keepers first hand, to be so cautious. You’re right that only excellent quarantine protocols (thus my own safe rather than sorry approach) are our current best defense.
@kingxc1128 good on you for getting help as soon as you know what’s in your collection. I wish you the very, very best in the years ahead while you sort it out. An unexpected recipient like you, trying to do the right thing, would be helped a lot by some vaccine or medication. I sure hope one is eventually developed.

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So DM op and ask. That’s what I was alluding to.
If it’s mentioned here the post will be removed.

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@kingxc1128 I don’t have anything helpful to add that hasn’t already been covered by the knowledgeable people here. I only have to say that I also had a run with Crypto and so I feel your pain and the overwhelming decisions you are having to make. I racked up 6k in vet costs getting my whole collection through multiple rounds of testing, had to cull one of my favorite breeder males, and threw out hundreds of dollars in supplies. And I’m about to start another round of testing because my paranoia won’t let me get complacent again.

The stigma around crypto is big but you are not alone getting through this :heart:

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There is no need for me to DM OP and ask as I am not going to be adding new snakes to my collection any time soon. Also, Nowhere am I suggesting it should be here on this post as there are several much better known “FBI” type groups in other places. Simply explaining the motivation of what I said. That it might be in the best interest of the reptile keeping community if this were known, especially if they still kept selling after they knew there was a problem.

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That was a rough time wasn’t it Erin. I know how disheartening it was for you. :cry:

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Thank you for your advice. After I received the PCR result, I made the decision to humanely euthanize the positive individual. I am also planning to test the high-risk exposed snakes by PCR pooling at both 6 weeks and 12 weeks after the exposure.

I would like to add some background from my region. I am located in China, and I have also discussed this situation on local reptile forums. Most experienced keepers are still very cautious about Cryptosporidium, but there are also some keepers and people claiming to be veterinarians who believe that transmission mainly occurs through the fecal-oral route. Their opinion is that if there is no sharing of equipment, water bowls, or other husbandry items, and proper hygiene is maintained, the risk of transmission within a rack system may be relatively low.

I am not sure whether there are more detailed studies or practical experiences regarding transmission risk in collections like this in your region, so I would really appreciate hearing your perspective.

Situations like this are really frustrating for any keeper, especially when you are trying to do your best to protect the rest of your collection.

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Thank you very much for your detailed response. I really appreciate the time and effort you put into explaining your experience and your understanding of this disease.

About a year ago, I also encountered a Cryptosporidium-positive individual. Fortunately, I noticed abnormal feces from the very first bowel movement, isolated the animal immediately, and thankfully none of my other snakes appeared to become infected.

As I mentioned in my reply to @cmsreptiles, there are some different opinions regarding the transmission risk of Cryptosporidium among keepers in my country. From what I have searched, I have not found many detailed studies specifically describing the real-world transmission probability of Cryptosporidium serpentis between captive snakes. Many published studies seem to focus more on the survival and inactivation of oocysts, while experimental infection studies often use relatively high-dose inoculation methods to establish infection.

Because reptile medicine and captive snake disease management seem to have a longer history and more experience in some other countries, I am very interested in hearing how experienced keepers and veterinarians outside my region view this disease, especially regarding the actual transmission risk under normal captive conditions.

Thank you again for sharing your experience. Situations like this are extremely stressful, but discussions like this are very valuable for improving biosecurity practices.

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No worries, I’m a keeper from China, and the snakes were purchased from a breeder here.

To be honest, the reptile market in my country can be quite challenging. There are unfortunately many irresponsible breeders and sellers, and health screening and transparency are not always at the level they should be. This experience has also reminded me how important proper quarantine procedures and biosecurity practices are when bringing new animals into a collection.

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