Everyone has probably heard of SFD or Snake Fungal Disease. It’s a type of fungus that tends to attack the head and face of snakes in some areas (it’s much more widespread than what’s easy to find in published literature). The species responsible for SFD is Ophidiomyces ophidiicola.
Unfortunately another type of fungal infection that may be even worse is popping up in some places. Over the last few years there have been several outbreaks of Paranannizziopsis sp. fungus in British Columbia and Washington. I’ll include some reading in this post but the reason I bring this up is I think it’s time for Herpers to start stepping up and taking sanitary concerns more seriously. Myself included. I’ve always sanitized between sites with amphibians, but I’ll be doing with snake sites as well now.
I may have discovered the first Paranannizziopsis infection site in Oregon and while I hope that’s not the case, the impact to the site is pretty damning and the affected snakes do clearly exhibit what appears to be fungal infections around the head and neck as well as lesions.
I first found this refuge last season and in the couple trips I made there we found literally hundreds of healthy pretty garter snakes. This year’s visit we found appx 40 between two trips and nearly every snake was either infected with whatever affliction this is, or overwhelmed with nematodes or both. Both issues may be associated with each other or some underlying cause. When immune systems are impacted parasite loads tend to increase, and parasite load can also affect immune systems.
The site is obviously crashing. We found several ‘zombies’ that will eventually succumb to the issue they’re facing as well as 5 or 6 dead adult snakes. It’s rare to find even one dead snake at a protected site but finding that many dead, and also completely undisturbed by scavengers is very concerning.
Thankfully I have friends in the professional herpetology community who were able to run this up the chain really quickly and put me in contact with biologists from the USDA and Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. ODFW learned about this site from me yesterday and by this afternoon had collected multiple specimen for testing. The prognosis isn’t good either way. If it is Paranannizziopsis, it’s probably more virulent than originally thought. If it’s not Paranannizziopsis, then it’s something new, highly transmissible, and capable of knocking down populations rapidly.
None of these animals are visibly affected. We didn’t approach the obviously infected animals for photos.
This is an important warning. A lot of the ‘fun’ people have in herping is taking quick photos and handling the animals. This is definitely a good reason to stop.
Also, thank you for following through in what you could to do something for these guys. It’s tough if the zone is already that compromised… But hopefully it will lead to some good info and safety nets for other areas nearby.
I live in b.c. Thank you for bringing that up. I am in the field a few times a week. I haven’t seen anything on any of the animals I have found here, yet. I’ll definitely look up how and who to report it to if I do.
In regards to cleanliness, It is best to sanitize before and after any interaction, even at home.
Thank you, Don, for this post. I’m very glad that you were able to get some sound scientific analysis so quickly. What information the scientific community has on this is very alarming to say the least.
This is so heartwrenching.
Thank you for the important reminder about the importance of sanitization. It’s something that people can forget about, or be ho-hum about. That casual behavior can have lethal consequences for the animals.
I think it really just dictates a need for more awareness. If I hadn’t developed a passion for herpetoculture then I wouldn’t have spent years honing my skill and knowledge base. Without that, this issue would have continued unchecked. People just need to think before they interact and of course should be sanitizing between interactions with something like Rescue.
The easiest way to report is to call a Conservation or Fish and Wildlife office and say something mysterious about a potential infection and ask to speak to a biologist. Most wardens are going to panic just enough to get you through
I think we’ll eventually find these fungi are endemic to areas and when things happen that impact immune systems at a population level, the infections ramp up. It’s scary that it’s been found in the PNW, Missouri, and Florida.
Here are some photos of an animal collected at the site. Animals were humanely euthanized by IV anesthesia followed by pentobarbital injections.
This is definitely a thing that can happen. When I was working veterinary part of my tasks was checking the canine ringworm cultures. I started noticing a lot of a different species popping up on the ringworm negative cultures. So I started digging and found the species, Alternaria. After that brought some info to my boss about what I was seeing and he was skeptical, but thankfully one of the other vets was interested and started up a fungal protocol for it if I saw that as well. It had been popping up as an ‘artifact’ for years and we never treated these animals for it because it wasn’t considered an issue.
The other concern wouldn’t be the endemic one… It’s the people who shouldn’t have reptiles just releasing animals into the wild. There’s a lung parasite now that’s being ID’d in reptiles in Florida now IIRC…and that’s being traced to an invasive species. For all we know this fungus could have been opportunistic on an imported plant or animal first and became an issue on the native fauna.
