# ‘Mad snake disease’ may  be caused by rodent virus



## -Peter (Aug 14, 2012)

‘Mad snake disease’ may  be caused by rodent virus - Environment - Scotsman.com

Published on *Tuesday 14 August 2012 01:09*
A MYSTERIOUS “mad snake disease” that causes pythons to tie themselves up in knots may be caused by a rodent virus, scientists believe.
The fatal condition, called inclusion body disease (IBD), strikes captive pythons and boa constrictors. Snakes with the disease start to display strange behavioural traits, such as “stargazing” – staring upwards for long periods of time.
Other symptoms include appearing drunk and getting into a tangle. “They tie themselves in a knot and they can’t get out of it,” said US expert Professor Michael Buchmeier, from the University of California at Irvine.
IBD gets its name from inclusions, or pockets of foreign material, found in the cells of affected animals. Although the disease is known to be highly infectious, its cause has been a mystery. Such viruses usually infect mice and rats, but can cause haemorrhagic fever in humans.
A team led by Prof Buchmeier investigated an outbreak of IBD among snakes at the Steinhart Aquarium in San Francisco.
Tests showed it belonged to a family of arenaviruses – a type of virus that normally infects rodents – never seen before. 
“This is one of the most exciting things that has happened to us in virology in a very long time,” said Prof Buchmeier. “The fact that we have apparently identified a whole new lineage of arenaviruses is very exciting.”
The research is published in _mBio_, the online journal of  the American Society for Microbiology.


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## Pythoninfinite (Aug 14, 2012)

Wow, that's really interesting Peter. I was told by Tim Hyndman in Perth recently that there was a whole lot of really exciting stuff happening with regard to these viral things - hopefully as work progresses we may get some answers to these questions...

Jamie


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## shaneb (Aug 14, 2012)

Fascinating stuff indeed.


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## Jungle_Freak (Aug 14, 2012)

Well I have always thought it was possible for rodents carrying Leptospirosis to infect or transfer this virus to pythons by ingesting them.
Leptospirosis - Queensland Health

Same as the cases of symptoms consistant with OPMV ? that now looks like Sunshine virus would be the true suspect etc . 

Just my opinion..


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## JasonL (Aug 14, 2012)

Seems plausible to me...


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## peterjohnson64 (Aug 14, 2012)

Very interesting - now we just need to understand whether freezing rodents will kill the viruses.


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## JasonL (Aug 14, 2012)

I would think so, but if not theres always chicken necks lol


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## jahan (Aug 14, 2012)

Pathogenic leptospires reproduce best at body temperature, but can survive over a wide range. They appear to be unable to tolerate temperatures over about 42°C, which can explain why bacterial growth is reduced or reversed in patients with very high fevers, with no reports of survivial when heated to over 55°C. Cold is easier to tolerate, and they can be frozen (in ice or liquid nitrogen) and subsequently revived. Leptospires have been isolated from kidneys that have been deep-frozen as part of the food distribution chain. Their levels of activity and ability to reproduce drops when cooled below 10°C.
Found this in a search
So freezing doesn`t kill it.


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## Jungle_Freak (Aug 14, 2012)

Some more reading on Lepto .
Leptospirosis Factsheet - NSW Department of Health

In humans ,there is about 200 cases per year in Australia.
And we dont eat rodents ?
Humans mainly catch lepto from coming into contact with rodent urine or droppings in work places on the land or farming etc .

Also it would be interesting to find out if collections affected by suspected cases of IBD were feeding fresh killed rodents or thawed ?


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