NERD (New England Reptile Distributors) *negative*

[elsn]

- Age/birth year, any history if known (e.g. proven breeder), etc. on each of the five snakes you purchased? Also do you know if these were snakes NERD had for a while and were selling because they had a better morph to put in its place, or if they were purchased to resell? I'm wondering if someone else didn't dump a positive collection on them.

- The five snakes from NERD were shipped together in one box and then you quarantined them together. After they arrived were any of them ever close to or quarantined with any other snakes? I know it's common for buyers to put new additions through quarantine with snakes already in quarantine, they just reset the quarantine clock when it happens.

- The timeline for all of this is in your Facebook link but not in your narrative above. Can you please tell us what date the snakes arrived, when the first snake started showing symptoms, date of the test, the date they were moved to a different location, etc?

Regarding the snakes you have that are positive but not showing symptoms, I will have to do some digging but I thought a few years back I read about a group of researchers doing work on IBD, nido, etc. in snakes and they were actively looking for animals that tested positive. I'll have to see if I can find who that was.

These are great questions and I understand your Facebook concern.

In order as best I can:

Breeding status
These were adult proven breeders females and one unknown breeding status male. Adults and proven breeders are a very high risk group because of the exposure to other snakes (breeding) and their general age.

Jeremy told me prior to buying that all females had successful clutches in 2019.

The ages were unknown. The male seemed to be a yearling but unknown. The oldest looking female has visible cataracts that were confirmed by veterinary imaging.

Pictures of the animals included one that simply read "Orion thing" which I assume was a project at NERD.

Quarantine status
All 5 arrived in the same box. I actually have an unboxing video somewhere around here. The unboxing video took place in a room with no snakes in it. Shipping box to temporary tubs where they remained.

They were kept in a separate room in the house with no contact.

I will state again that no other snake is testing positive.

Timeline

Paid for in December. Received in January ("no ship" due to weather, agreed upon when purchasing). Two separate transactions, all snakes showed up in the same box.

Probably roughly middle of February we became concerned about one snake showing signs of RI (wheezing, etc). A vet appointment was made and a test was run.

February 28th results received that a symptomatic snake tested positive via Veterinary Molecular Diagnostics. Entire collection tested May 9th. Only the NERD snakes tested positive.

That weekend they were relocated outside of my home into someone else's short term care where they remain away from any other snakes.

We continued to re-test in April.

As supported by Jeremy in the text above we remained in contact throughout these months. He was notified of the initial diagnosis and later notified of deaths. You should not find any large contradictions in the timelines but they may differ by a day or two: I was not contacting him "in real time second by second" from the vet's office, for example.

Another complete collection round is planned in two weeks.

Asymptomatic Animals

I assure you that they can be asymptomatic as indicated by at least one study and also supported via Fishhead Labs. Jeremy also mentions that they can be asymptomatic.

Edit: As I was typing Pia from Fishhead Labs actually popped into the Facebook thread with this:

Yeah, personally I know there are many breeders who unknowingly send out animals with nidovirus. Not on purpose but are just looking at outward appearance and not testing and the buyer is taking that chance. Nidovirus positive animals can be sub clinical or asymptotic and not show any outward signs. I know I’m beating a dead horse here but we had an asymptotic green tree python here at Terrestrial & Arboreal that had the highest viral load in our collection. And still is positive and asymptotic 4 years later. We have been very open about our nidovirus outbreak in 2016.
In the end it comes down to the buyer to be vigilant about the animal and breeder they are buying from. Just my personal opinion ��


After editing I realize I may have misread your statement. If you know someone looking for live adult asymptomatic pythons definitely let me know.