Feeding off Sick Rats??

[purple python]

I have a small out break of Sialodacryoadenitis virus (or coronavirus) in my rat colony and I am VERY hesitant to feed off sick rats to my snakes.

Would it be safe to do so with this type of illness or should I not chance it?

[Freakie_frog]

I wouldn't risk it.. but that's just me.

[dek593]

I would never feed rats have any kinds of viruses. You know, many wild meat eaters die of diseases that transferred from their prey.

[purple python]

Yeah I really don't want to rick it, thanks for the input!

[LLLReptile]

I would feed off all infected rats and quarantine heavily. Looks like the virus is non fatal and from the symptoms I could see with a quick internet search, is probably a relatively common virus in a lot of feeder rodents. It also seems to be pretty rat/mouse specific, and does not transfer over to other mammals. Since it doesn't seem to transfer to mammals as far as I can tell, it is incredibly unlikely that it would transfer to reptiles. Of course, if someone else knows more about the virus from their vet than I do, please feel free to chime in if I am wrong in my understanding of the info I found about the virus.

Or you could just discard the culled animals, it's entirely your choice to make - if you do feed off infected animals, I would say that once a rat enters a snake cage, it cannot be put back in the colony if it's not eaten (if you don't have this policy already anyway). That way you ensure that once you quarantine everything, you don't accidentally reintroduce the virus back to your colony a few weeks or months down the line.

-Jen