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IBD..............
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by Aries54 on December 22, 2007
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This may be a dumb question,....but a friend asked me, and I'm not sure. Can IBD be transferred to non-reptile animals? For instance, if a snake comes down with IBD, and it's in the same room as a bird (or in a pet store with lots of animals) will the other animals catch something? Can it in some way affect humans? I know this is probably a dumb question, but I've never thought about it before.
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RE: IBD..............
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by Cro on December 22, 2007
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Mark, IBD or Inclusion body disease in reptiles is most likely caused by a retro-like virus.
Wether a virus could spread to other animals in a collection or in a petshop, would depend somewhat on the care the keepers take to isolate the infected animal, and in preventing the spread of the virus from contaminated items like snake hooks, cages, tongs, hands, etc. The disease mostly attacks boas and pythons, however, any virus may mutate, and find ways to attack other hosts.
It is quite possible that the virus spreads in an airborne fashion, which means that that it could contaminate other animals in the area and even the keepers. Wether it could have an effect on the keepers is not known at this time, however, viruses do mutate, and we might be one mutation away from the virus being able to infect humans.
Also, the virus will spread form an infected parent snake to the young, wether they are live born or egg layers.
Mites have also been implicated in spreading this disease from cage to cate in reptile collections. Efforts should be made to control mites, perhaps by using pyretherin surface sprays on the surfaces between cages, and even on the cage bottoms underneath the cage substrate.
At present there seems to be no cure for this disease, and it seems to be always fatal, and highly contagious. Infected snakes should be removed from the area immediatly, and euthanised. Any caging associated with them should be cleaned with a bleach / water solution, and all substrate should be disgarded.
Whole collections have been wiped out by the spread of this condition.
All new reptiles, especially Boas and Pythons, should be Quarantined when you first get them, for a period of 3 to 6 months.
Hope this helps.
Best Regards JohnZ
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