Possible New Brutal Disease

This is an exact post from Aubrey Pruitt (Well know and respected breeder) from the Retic Nation.
So far this disease has only been reported in retic collections, it's unknown if it will spread to others species.

Aubrey Pruitt wrote:

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With an extremely heavy heart I have a serious issue / information that needs to be shared and addressed by anyone and everyone that keeps or breeds reptiles. Over the course of the last 5-6 weeks I have lost 90% of my entire collection to a brutal disease outbreak that seemingly appeared out of nowhere. I have spent quite a bit of money on veterinary care and necropsies to basically end up with more questions than answers.

The first animal to show any symptoms was a nearly 2yr. old Anthrax Tiger around 8ft long that was in my colony for over a year. This was a very strong retic with a expected healthy food drive. A few days after a regular meal she regurgitated a partially digested rat. I honestly didn't think to heavily on it with the exception of checking to see that her heat pad was functioning normally. She was still alert active and strangely enough followed me as if still hungry. From that point she began to develop a rash of skin blisters over the next 48-72 hours. Once the second symptom showed itself she was removed from my facility in her cage for quarantine and observation. She further developed a respiratory infection and passed about a week after the regurge.

Roughly 2-3 days after her death a 15ft female tiger had a very abnormal runny very foul smelling stool. I obviously decided to keep a very close eye on her due to the closeness in time to the Anthrax girls sickness. She went from an alert, responsive, hunger stalking retic to covered in blisters and dying from a respiratory infection in the exact same timeline as the last. Nearly immediately after her passing her body was taken to the Rollins Animal Disease Laboratory in Raleigh, NC for necropsy. The results were shocking to say the least. They told me that there were cell body inclusions throughout the body organs. The skin blistering was from a secondary bacterial infection. This news perplexed me because of the complete lack of any neurological symptoms most commonly associated with IBD. I've seen cases of IBD in years past that displayed themselves entirely differently. Loss of motor function, head wobbling, stargazing ect ect. What I was seeing was very different.

I immediately went into full quarantine mode in my facility with only spot cleaning and fresh water for everything in order to eliminate further spread of this plague. Unfortunately there wasn't enough bleach in the world to fix what was already done. Believe me plenty of bleach was used. A mass die off was underway that couldn't be stopped. From talking with several very influential people in this industry and quite a few specialists in reptile disease, I've come to believe that this is something that I feel and others agree is different that what's commonly known as IBD. Obviously it leaves a similar signature in a retics necropsy. I feel it's a divergent strain of IBD or something along the lines of a chicken pox type virus. Through my conversations with people I've found out that this has been around the states for at least several years. Several people have admitted to me they've had this go thru their collections and caused a similar result.

Quite possibly the worst part of what I've learned is that this disease can carry totally unnoticeable gestation of 4+ weeks. As soon as the second animal showed symptoms and full quarantine methods were necessary I moved quite a few irreplaceable/ worlds only animals into my house and spread them apart as much as possible to avoid cross contamination. One by one they began to show symptoms and die off. Some of these we're separated as long as 4 weeks without negative signs. Multiple vet visits and necropsies later my collection was decimated. Diagnosed as IBD but in my humble opinion I feel this is more than just a case of what we all know as IBD. This truly seems to be something different than the test show. As I stated before there are multiple other people in the US that have had this in their collections that I urge and beg to step forward with any information they learned /insight they gained on this subject.

I will not call out these people publicly as I don't wish to throw stones or start wars. I only wish that information can be shared to help protect others from what has happened to me. Staying quiet to protect future sales simply isn't the answer and puts everyone who loves these beautiful animals at risk. Sharing knowledge is the only positive that can come from such a horrible thing. Please step forward and help protect our community as a whole.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me through all this terrible situation. The past years of keeping and breeding Reticulated pythons have been some of the happiest times of my life and these animals will always be a part of me and my heart.

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Yeah, I read through all the comments and have been following the discussions. I really hope the breeders who have also faced this will come forward so we can attempt to find patient zero by tracking snake purchases and who stuff came from, that way other people can be aware of what's going on. It's a shame that this hit the community, its a devastating situation. Whether or not its a new strain of IBD, or whether or not it will affect other species, this is a massive and scary hit on the retic community. I'm fortunate enough that I've stayed away from new stuff for the most part in the last few months. Only things that have entered my collection have been from people I know personally. I couldn't imaging losing 90% of a collection from a disease, and even then, you'd have to be pretty scared to bring anything into the house since you have no idea what you're fighting and how long it can remain dormant without a host . . . :(

I saw that post. Terrible stuff :(

Was there any information as to their food supply? There may have been toxins in the food supply that could cause a dormant reaction. This is horrible on so many levels. I am now having second thoughts of getting a new snake at the expo this weekend. Most only quarantine for 4 weeks. You literally could quarantine and still wipe out your collection.

IBD can lay dormant in boids for up to 2 years. So a 2 year QT period would be the only safe way in that case. But yeah, 6 month QT is pretty standard now a days. . .

The food question came up, but Aubrey hadn't responded as of yet, neither had his brother Sampson. Seems to be that both of their collections were effected by this, shame too, I know Sampson was just getting started again, and had a lot of new snakes and was moving out a lot of snakes as well. . . I hope this gets isolated quick.

From the words of the diseased - Hold off buying new pythons at the moment until this thing is cornered. . . people are selling infected snakes knowingly.

Yes this really stinks we were set to pick up a baby retic in a few weeks and even though the seller has no ill snakes and hasn't had a new one come in for quite a while, he is locking down his own collection.

It's also scary that with Aubrey's animals it popped up initially in one that he had for eight months.

Can someone please link to the original source for the quote and discussion that followed?

It's in the retic nation Facebook group. It's a closed group (to keep out lobbyist). So there is no public link. It usually on the top of the Facebook page lately as it is under more development

Wow... This is scary stuff. I was considering going to the Atlanta show at the end of the month to pickup a new snake, but now I'm not so sure... There are usually a lot of retics for sale at the Atlanta show and if this could be spread to other species, I might have to pass for now.

I also wondered about the food supply and it's role, but if this same disease has been seen in other unrelated collections, the food is probably not to blame (unless all of them got food from the same source).

I am sorry for this guy's loss... It has to be heartbreaking to see a collection of animals that you've built up and cared for for years die off so suddenly with nothing you can do to stop it.

There are other viruses that afflict snakes - take Iridoviruses for example. Iridoviruses often present with cutaneous abscesses and - by the very fact that it is a virus - inclusion bodies.

Just so we are clear on this all just about this, inclusion bodies are structures that show up within the cytoplasm or cell nuclei when a virus multiplies. They are not unique to IBD. Just because histology shows inclusion bodies isn't an indicator of IBD. It's an indicator of a multiplying virus. The virus must then be identified. It is imperative that when a potential new virus rears it's head that affected snakes be properly necropsied and that tissue samples are sent to labs that actually research these pathogens. Sending a sample to a diagnostic lab does very little unless that lab is clued into the various researchers identifying these viruses.

As for IBD, it can remain asymptomatic INDEFINATELY.

Not 6 months, not two years, not 5 years.

INDEFINATELY.

I have no doubt that the labs running the tests on the diseased/dead retics were selected because they specialize in these tests.

I've read the estimates of the breeder's losses - a quarter of a million bucks in snakes on the low end, including several one-of-a-kind morphs. He wants answers and has the motivation and resources to pursue them.

Aubrey is also looking out for the community he loves and wants to protect.

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Originally Posted by bcr229

I have no doubt that the labs running the tests on the diseased/dead retics were selected because they specialize in these tests.

I've read the estimates of the breeder's losses - a quarter of a million bucks in snakes on the low end, including several one-of-a-kind morphs. He wants answers and has the motivation and resources to pursue them.

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Specializing in testing is one thing. When one of my snakes died this past spring due to osteomyelitis a lab confirmed the pathology, but her remains were sent to a research center that is studying the disease. There are only a handful of people studying viruses in snakes in this country. Once Mr. Pruitt knows what is decimating his collection - what's next?

Well, working on a way to treat, and test against future outbreaks. Look no further than the snail's pace progress made against IBD and OPMV. You can go back and read about how people got decimated by viral outbreaks in their collections, and yet the Hobby made pathetic gestures towards funding research and most people could barely even figure out whether they were dealing with adenoviruses, ranaviruses, OPMV, etc.

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Originally Posted by reptileexperts

Aubrey is also looking out for the community he loves and wants to protect.

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That's awesome. I don't know Aubrey but I will do this - find out who is running the tests and who will be doing the work with regards to identifying and coming up with positive steps towards this disease. Once that is confirmed I will donate $100 to that researcher and I will post receipt of that payment here.

Is anyone else willing to do the same? Or are we going to continue to wring our hands like we have done with other ophidian viruses for the last 25 years?

So any updates? I looked at Aubrey's facebook page hoping to find some more info - no luck.

Any pathology updates? Any news on his collection?

Any news on steps being taken in the retic community to trace back the disease? Any steps being taken to see if this is species specific or if it poses a greater threat? Have the other keepers/breeders been identified or have they stepped forward?

Any idea who he's consulted with respect to the quote "From talking with several very influential people in this industry and quite a few specialists in reptile disease"......?

Knowledge is power. The more people that are informed the better. I applaud the OP for sharing this info outside of the retic community............but aside from the OP, no one seems to be sharing info about this........

While there have been a few small updates and some discussion about additional measures for preventing the spread of airborn viral diseases, I haven't seen where it's been traced back.

Aubrey did contact everyone who received a snake from him over the last few months to let them know about the disease, and AFAIK those collections are all locked down. So, hopefully it won't go forward.