Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola: Snake Fungal Disease Spreads, Research Continues

i was reading an article about a smrt, young lady this morning on her field research into a snake disease but it's now led me down the rabbit hole of the interwebz reading up on Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola aka Snake Fungal Disease (SFD).

there's IBD, crypto, etc. etc. and there's Snake Fungal Disease - which can tip the balance in the ecosystems across the Eastern US and Canada. the disease is contracted by contact via scale-on-scale, but some reports contraction via soil as well. the pix of the snakes that have had it are graphic and the disease is ultimately lethal. i hope researchers can find a cure or help curtail it's spread. also i think this is another thing to consider and be aware of while you are out herping in the wild and/or field collecting snakes.

anyways here's the profile on Amanda Erlandson and her study: http://www.daily-journal.com/news/bb...b4c23c28a.html

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BBCHS grad researches snake fungus
Amanda Erlandson’s childhood fascination for grandmother Cindy Erlandson’s 3-foot-long ball pythons in Bradley has carried her through the University of Wisconsin-Platteville and research into a fungal disease in snakes that has swept across the eastern United States in recent years.

She graduated last week with a degree in biology and zoology and has landed a part-time job at the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium, on the river bank at Dubuque, Iowa, 22 miles southwest of Platteville.

Her senior research and thesis might have helped land her that job.

Working with biology professor John Peterson, she and other Platteville zoology students conducted local research into Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola, a potentially lethal enemy of snakes that has been spreading across the east half of the U.S. It is being compared to white-nose syndrome that has devastated bat populations across the same region and into Canada for a decade.

The snake fungus is known “from Iowa east, both north and south, but it seems more severe in northern climates — Wisconsin and north,” Erlandson said. It is reported in 23 states. “It could be established in other areas, but people just don’t care enough to find out. People are scared of them and they’re portrayed as evil, but they are very important.”

Just as the devastation of the white-nose syndrome threatens the tremendous insect control services of bats, the fungal disease in snakes can have a similar cost in service to society.

In nature, “snakes are both prey and predators — food for other animals — birds, foxes, coyotes — and they prey on smaller animals like insects and rodents,” Erlandson said.

The fungus “is hitting the snake population hard. It is believed to be transferred among snakes during hibernation ... by rubbing against each other,” she said.

Is it transferred to offspring? “I’m not sure,” she said. “I would assume it could be because some snakes have live birth, but if they lay eggs, it would probably not be transferred.

“If they have a wound, then it can be more serious.”

In their research, the students spread 125 plywood, metal and asphalt sheets over the vegetation of the university’s Memorial Park, then came back each morning to check for snakes that took cover under them. They then examined the snakes for fungus.

The research has its hazards. Erlandson was nipped on the finger one morning by a nonpoisonous garter snake she was examining.

Once the researchers get enough suspected fungal samples, they are to be sent to the University of Illinois, which she said has “the only lab in North American that tests for it.”

They had “close to 20 samples, maybe more” as the school year closed, she said. Of the snakes from which the samples were taken, “I would say maybe five had symptoms.”

The research “was a great opportunity to work with snakes in the wild,” she said. “I had always only worked with captive snakes.”

“My first interest in them was when I was around 10 years old and my grandmother had ball pythons probably 3 or 4 feet long. I would hold them, watch them eat and really just observe them.”

Grandma lived in Bradley for years, but has since moved to Wisconsin. Grandma and her parents, Julie Kennedy and Gary Erlandson, both of Bradley, “always encouraged me in wanting to be a veterinarian or a zookeeper,” she said.

She and her brother and sister, Ryan and Tori, also grew up in nature, riding bikes and exploring Perry Farm, the Indian Caves area and its creek, she said.

“I really prefer to do out-of-classroom experiences, because I’m more of a hands-on learner,” Erlandson told Alison Parkins, of UW-Platteville public relations. “The difference between doing in-class case studies and the fieldwork is that we actually get to see what is happening. When you read a case study in class about a project and how it went wrong, it tells you what they did to solve it, but when we do fieldwork, we get to use our own problem-solving skills. It gives you a new level of learning.”

Her new part-time job at the National Mississippi River Museum and Aquarium will be hands-on. She’ll be feeding the animals, cleaning up after them, testing water quality in the aquarium and doing maintenance. She be around plenty of animals — fish, a lot of turtles, an alligator, a stingray, an armadillo and a lot of reptiles. “The only mammals we have are the mice we feed to the snakes,” she said.

Erlandson is a 2014 graduate of Bradley-Bourbonnais Community High School, where she was an honor student and all-conference and MVP soccer goalie.

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here's a 2015 article on the discovery of Snake Fungal Disease: https://ca.news.yahoo.com/cause-myst...132441128.html


another 2017 article w/ an update on it's spread to Europe: http://www.digitaljournal.com/tech-a...article/510609


and another artilce the other day about confirmation in Indiana: http://www.heraldbulletin.com/news/s...d4e153d42.html

i posted about this back in january. it's good to see that the research on it is continuing.

Interesting articles!

Both sad & frightening. This is exactly why mixing native snakes with non-native snakes is a big no-no. DO think twice before you collect or buy
wild-caught snakes, as you just might bring this home to the rest of your collection. There are some irresponsible herp businesses, unfortunately,
that may be helping this to spread (by selling wild caught snakes without testing or quarantine). Snakes already have enough problems. :(

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Originally Posted by tttaylorrr

i posted about this back in january. it's good to see that the research on it is continuing.

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are u saying there's an opportunity to bamp something? :)


Edit:

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Originally Posted by Bogertophis

Both sad & frightening. This is exactly why mixing native snakes with non-native snakes is a big no-no. DO think twice before you collect or buy
wild-caught snakes, as you just might bring this home to the rest of your collection. There are some irresponsible herp businesses, unfortunately,
that may be helping this to spread (by selling wild caught snakes without testing or quarantine). Snakes already have enough problems. :(

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sadly true.

There are a few Facebook groups where it is being discussed.

Yes it is transmitted from mother through the egg to the neonate. In one group researchers said they had found a female with SFD, and while they had her she laid a clutch of ten eggs. They incubated the clutch and most of the neonates were either stillborn or showed SFD symptoms within days of pipping.

Oh, that's awful...maybe not so surprising but sure not what we wanted to hear.

https://content.govdelivery.com/acco...letins/1fe0e04

Georgia DNR Bulletin 07/13/18

NEW START FOR RESTORED INDIGO

Eastern indigo snakes are already rare. They’re listed as threatened under the Endangered Species Act.

But an indigo with a deadly snake disease that is restored to health and returned to the wild? That reaches beyond rare to amazing.

In March, DNR and University of Georgia staff found a sick female indigo at a south Georgia wildlife management area. One of North America’s largest native snakes, indigos as adults are big, strong and glossy black. But this snake was thin, flecked with crusting, brown scales, and too weak to try to escape.

The indigo was taken to the Jekyll Island Authority’s Georgia Sea Turtle Center. Dr. Terry Norton, center director, has done extensive work with indigos. The diagnosis wasn’t a shock: snake fungal disease. Dubbed SFD, the disease is a severe dermatitis that causes scabs, crusty scales, abnormal molting and other skin inflammation.

SFD was first reported in a captive black rat snake from Sparta in 2006. It has since been documented in more than a dozen species and a growing number of wild snakes in the eastern U.S. and Midwest, including in Georgia ("Disease reported in more snakes," Oct. 8, 2015). The associated fungus, Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola, has been confirmed in other indigos in the state, the first dating to 2004.

The jury is out on the impact of the disease, and whether SFD is spreading or simply taking advantage of snakes stressed by changes such as habitat loss. Yet for snakes, the disease is clearly a killer. And treating it is a challenge.

At the Sea Turtle Center, the ailing indigo was bathed with a diluted antiseptic, swathed in antibiotic cream and misted with an antifungal drug in a process called nebulization. The latter is a new therapy developed by the University of Illinois’ Dr. Matt Allender with collaboration by the center, Norton wrote.

"Each time the snake shed, there was some improvement," Norton added.

At first, the patient wouldn’t eat. Then came its first meal - a fresh, road-killed corn snake, and a welcomed sign.

When the indigo had fully recovered, the Sea Turtle Center released it at the WMA where it was found.

A rare snake had received a rare second chance at life.

SFD AND INDIGOS

For nearly two years, The Orianne Society has been sampling indigos across south Georgia for Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola, the fungus associated with SFD. The federally funded project is documenting the prevalence of the disease in indigos.

^ good news! the good dr. mentions there was continued improvement after each shed after the treatment regimen. i wonder how long the how process was? 6months? 12? 18?