I have a few colonies of mice and ASF rats. I noticed one of them sneezing just over a week ago. I switched everyone from aspen to pine bedding about three weeks ago so I assumed this was an allergic reaction since it was only one mouse. I removed the pine from his colony and replaced it with paper towel for a temporary solution until I could find another type bedding. Yesterday the male mouse is still sneezing and now his 3 ladies are sneezing. I now know this is a virus, not an allergic reaction. Today I noticed one of the females has a crusted eye.

I should note that my colonies do not produce enough to support my whole collection of snakes so I do go out and buy a few extra but the feeder mice I purchase do not come into direct contact with my colonies and are usually fed off as soon as I get home but I am also dumb enough to not wash my hands before reaching into my own colonies's cages after handling the store bought feeders... never thought about it, but I am thinking this may be how this colony got the virus. Just an assumption though.

But I am curious of the chances of my other colonies (mice and ASFs) of getting the virus? I use a rack breeding system and this colony is in the middle of the rack. None of my other colonies seem to be sick, thank goodness and unfortunately for this colony I will be euthanizing them tomorrow. They are still in the room though but have been moved from the rack into a tank across the room for now. So should I be worried about my other colonies?