This is an Australian forum discussing OPMV -- I have copied and pasted a few posts that are related to what I have been saying:

( http://www.aussiepythons.com/forum/g...n-44092/page-3 )

HerpDoc
Regular Member Join Date: Dec-06
Location: Melbourne
Age: 27
Posts: 29

Biopsies on live animals may be useful but hard to achieve. Best area is lung tissue and this is technically difficult in snakes and obviously would result in a fair amount of trauma. Other issues with biopsy are that the virus maybe atypical in its behaviour, ie living in other tissue and may be missed by biopsy. In the United States can be diagnosed anti-mortem with a haemagglutintaion inhibition test that looks for antibodies. This however is not an indication of active infection but only means expose to the virus has occurred and a rise in antibody titre is required for diagnosis of active infection. Snakes take about 8 weeks to seroconvert so if they are tested during this time they may be falsely identified as negative.
As far as transmission is concerned the main mode is considered to be airbone with contaminated utensils and cage furniture also playing a significant role so the key to prevention is HYGIENE. Cant stress this enough, this also includes good quarantine protocols and controlling ectoparasites.

__________________
Dr Franciscus Scheelings BVSc
Veterinary Resident Healesville Sanctuary
Special Interest Reptile and Amphibian Medicine and Surgery
The bolded sentence is exactly why the negative test result from Dr. Jacobsen needs to be thrown out and another test done on new samples from the two snakes that were sick longer and survived. The females used were only sick for 3 weeks therefore most likely had no antibody development, thus the negative result.

adbacus
Regular Member Join Date: Jul-06
Location: Albury
Age: 31
Posts: 850

Quote:
Originally Posted by xycom
Have any cases been found in wild specimens?
Would a good herp vet be able to organise tests on suspected animals?

1. Depending on who you talk to, the theorists out there believe that the disease originiated in Australia. I prefer to believe in conventional thinking that it was an introduced disease. I have not seen any papers or documents out there that suggest that it has managed to get out in the wild. There have been no studies I know of out there to suggest that it is out there. However, there has been a huge decline in the presence of herps and Australian Native Flora and fauna within the last 30 odd years.

2. Definitive tests on animals at this point in time involve in killing the animal. The only reliable method I have been told of diagnosis is through tissue histology. I have suggested to a few people that modified ELISA (Enzyme Linked Immuno Sorbed Assay) or PCR (polymerase Chain Reaction) tests may be beneficial and would not necessarily kill the animal. The issue with this is that the tests require specific keyed DNA for the causative agents which cause IBD and OPMV. The dna viral strands themselves require to be isolated. At this point, the actual identification of key strands themselves are not 100% and more research needs to be done.

I am still waiting for anyone who might be able to give more information on the use of Colombovac and it's efficacy and viability as it is an APMV (Avian Paramyxovirus) Vaccine.

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Waiting here. Sitting in the Dark, Waiting for the Lynch Mobs and Witch Hunters.
Considering that reptiles and birds are very closely related, this is why people chose to try the vaccine in reptile OPMV cases in Europe.

This is a quote from another related website, where we got much of our info from:

( http://www.smuggled.com/OPMV17.htm )

A hemagglutination-inhibition (HI) assay has been developed to measure antibody produced against OPMV (Jacobson et al., 1981), however in experiments, some snakes produced no antibodies some weeks after infection and others actually died before any antibodies appeared. Hence a negative HI assay cannot be taken to exclude the possibility an OPMV infection. It appears that in some snakes OPMV antibodies form about 8 weeks after infection.
This is the article about the successful use of Colombovac in stopping OPMV -- I e-mailed John months ago when we first started suspecting this virus, and he confirmed that his collection is still doing well and that he has not had an outbreak since:

( http://sidewinder78.tripod.com/TheSi...anch/id31.html )

VIRUS INFECTION IN MY SNAKE COLLECTION
John Bakker

In October 1988 I bought a number of young snakes from a breeder at a snake show. Those were the only snakes I bought that day, other than that I inspected snakes for several people who wanted to buy them. I also sexed a few snakes by means of probing. After I got home I housed the young snakes separately in small boxes. All went well the first few months. The snakes ate well and grew rapidly, but early February 1989 I found a snake (Elaphe Helena) dead that I have had for a number of years.
In a period of about twelve hours this snake lost a lot of weight en was severely dehydrated. In the next two days four more snakes died. According to the autopsy report all the snakes died of pneumonia (a lot of mucus in the lungs). All the snakes were treated as a precautionary measure, but after a few days I found six snakes dead and six more the day after that. All the snakes that died were good eaters, were healthy but all died within a twelve hour period. They all lost a lot of weight all were dehydrated. All the snakes showed a peculiar behavior before they died. They appeared to be very edgy and aggressive and moved very fast within their enclosures. I took a snake to an animal hospital in Utrecht where Marja Kik examined it and a PARAMIXOS virus was found in the snakes brain. This virus is similar to the virus found in pigeons and chickens. I was advised to keep all my snakes in separate enclosures and to disinfect all materials, used for treatment, and myself with FORMALINE 4% after every visit to my snake room. Now all I could do was wait. According to the hospital there was no known treatment or medicine. Professor Zwart was in the U.S.A at this time attending a congress about this virus, so I could not consult with him about a possible treatment. In the next two weeks a large number of snakes died so I decided to consult Walter Getreuer of SERPO-ZOO in Delft. I then decided to inject the remainder of my snakes with COLOMBOVAC, 0.2 cc for each snake despite its size and weight. This medicine has been used by my father in the pigeon sport as a preventive treatment for young pigeons for many years. The price of one injection at that time was about HFL 1,35. After a week all my snakes looked and behaved normal and not a single snake died. In total I had lost 40 snakes to this virus. By September 1989 all my snakes were in perfect condition. To this day I still dont know who was responsible for bringing infected snakes to the show. I later heard that a few other snake keepers were hit by this virus. Snakes most perceptive to this virus are Lampropeltis, Boa, Python, Vipera, Crotalus and Asian Elaphe species. This virus hardly ever infects North American Elaphe species. I have no scientific proof that my treatment cured the snakes, but you dont have much choice when all your snakes are dying on you. Youll try anything to save your snakes and in my case it seemed to have worked. In the years after this period I have been approached by a number of snake keepers with the same problem (also through SERPO-ZOO). I advised them all to treat their snakes with COLOMBOVAC and I have had nothing but positive response. Even now in 2001 I have been asked to advise on a number of cases. Because new cases keep popping up in the literature (especially in the USA) about this virus in rattlesnake species, keeping this treatment in mind may be a good thing.

John Bakker