First, I would advocate listening to the GTPKeeper podcast and MPR podcast episodes that were exclusively devoted to this topic. That should help you get a better grip on what you are dealing with.
Next, here is a fairly comprehensive article on nido: https://www.sciencedirect.com/scienc...42682217304130
Less relevant but still interesting is this one on nido in shinglebacks: http://journals.plos.org/plosone/art...l.pone.0165209
There is a lot of generalized speculation in this thread that is being thrown out as if it were fact and I would caution against that. Nido are a branch of a class of viruses that includes many known pathogens but that does not mean that any one type of nidovirus will absolutely prove infectious or pathogenic across a wide range of species. In fact, is seems from some of the limited data available that there might be strain/host specificity and also that some species may be inherently resistant while others are dramatically susceptible. However, more data on both of those is necessary before we begin hanging our hats on those ideas. As a whole, this broad class of viruses are somewhat robust but they are not the near immortal entities that has been implied. Typically, under ideal conditions this type of virus can survive 4-10 days in the environment. Increased heat, decreased humidity, and the active use of disinfectants and detergents greatly reduces the survival of viral particles.
As far as how long you should wait before you can assume your animal is indeed clean... Someone above mentioned a retest at 90 days after the first test and I would be inclined to agree. Not because that is the know incubation time but because that is just generally good quarantine time. Personally, I would also advocate a repeat test after one year just for good measure since there does seem to be some evidence for latent carrier state in some animals.
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