IBD testing and quarantine

[Bogertophis]

Not much is known about IBD, so that makes it even more dangerous. I believe false negatives can occur, especially in early stages. So if you're worried about it, it would be best to get a test when the snake arrives and at the end of it's quarantine. I think there is sometimes a chance of recovery if a snake has it but it often results in death. There are some people who have IBD positive collections so if you were to get a snake with IBD it would be ethical to give it to someone with an IBD positive collection. I don't think it's as infectious as everyone claims and if everything is thoroughly cleaned it's not likely to spread (but don't treat this as a fact). I'm pretty sure that UVC can kill the virus but reading about that is on my to-do list.

I won't claim to be an expert on IBD, & I've certainly never had to deal with it, but at this time there is no cure, & typically euthanasia is encouraged sooner rather than later, to prevent the potential spread- simply because it's so devastating- it's not only the snake that suffers, but imagine if you had a large collection with a lot of money involved with commercial aspirations & contagion to your collection could have been prevented. I can imagine there are some "IBD positive" collections where the snakes have been exposed but are asymptomatic- some snakes, including colubrids, have been thought to be able to carry it without showing signs of illness- & understandably no one wants to euthanize their seemingly healthy pets, but I sure hope they take every precaution so it's not spread. UVC is fine for killing viruses on surfaces but not in the snakes themselves- that would kill the snakes too- that's not a cure. It's also thought that mites may be able to spread it, & I'd assume that's true until proven otherwise- which is why it's best to avoid buying snakes known to have mites. Mites are more than just inconvenient- they're disease vectors.