I have corresponded with Dr. Jacobson re IBD on 4 occasions his research is leading the field although primarily in boas. I also have seen a documented real case in person of IBD from a local collection. Very luckily the person who had the snake (it came from Ottawa) practices very very very careful quarantine. IBD transmission vector is unknown making it very hard to know how to carry on with quarantine. The test as I understand has a high accuracy rate in the 90% or better I believe. It is costly, the test is 100$ plus the shipping and the preparation, it should be sent to Dr. Jacobson in the U of Florida. It is because of the unknown factors i mention it. If it is unknown how it is spread there is no reasonable way to know if any breeder has had contact with it. Ophidian Paramyxovirus I know little about so I am unable to make intelligent comments upon it.
I can't say how much the OPs vet charges for tests but MY vet charges about 25-35$ for a fecal exam and 40-55$ for a blood screen. Not unreasonable. I would as I originally stated that i would not even give thought to the fecal. I run fecals every year on all the snakes I own. With the high rate I found of parasites in rats raised for food and the fact that few freezers are set to -7ºC and often prey items are used inside 30 days even frozen thawed is not free of that chance.
The blood screen is a good idea period, it offers valuable information about the health and a baseline to track changes and is an asset in future treatments.
IBD testing well if there is or has been any contact with a boa or any new animal entered into the collection (of the breeder) in 2 years then it might be something to be considered. Is it likely to find anything no unlikely. I equate it to having an AIDS testing between partners there is no reason why i would suspect anything but it starts off a new relationship with a clean slate so to speak.
I believe Dr. Rita Chang is in charge of running the blood tests.
http://labs.vetmed.ufl.edu/files/201...D2012-Rita.pdf
Oh, it looks like Dr. Jacobsons lab also runs testing on Ophidian Paramyxovirus as well.
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