# Ophidian Paramyxovirus information



## nightowl (Dec 4, 2006)

Here is some information for those of you interested in this subject. This info is taken from the latest edition of "Reptile Medicine & Surgery" by Douglas Mader. I hope it is OK to reproduce the text here because this book is rather expensive and alot of people would not have a copy but the info is a must for herpers if you can understand some of the text! 

_Ophidian Paramyxovirus (OPMV) was first isolated in 1973 from a Fer-de-lance (Bothrops moojeni) after an outbreak in a Swiss serpentarium that killed 25% of 431 specimens. Since then, numerous documented outbreaks of Paramyxovirus have been seen in private and zoologic collections. Paramyxovirus has been isolated from all major snake families, including elapids, boids, colubrids and viperids. Crotalids appear to be the most susceptible.

Paramyxovirus is an enveloped RNA virus 120 to 150 μm in diameter that reproduces by budding from cell membranes. Two distinct subgroups have been shown to exist with several intermediate isolates. This grouping does not appear to be species specific, although geographic correlations were found. Recently, a transmission study was carried out in Aruba Island Rattle Snakes and Koch's postulates were fulfilled. 

*Clinical Signs
*There are no pathognomonic signs for the diagnosis of paramyxovirus infection. The disease affects primarily the respiratory system but can present with a tremendous variation of signs, which makes diagnosis difficult for the clinician. The symptoms are divided into three categories.

*Acute and Peracute *
Often minimal to nonexistent promontory signs are noticed by the keeper or owner; the animals are often just found dead. Anorexia and regurgitation are occasionally seen. The most common symptoms include respiratory compromise, blood in the oral cavity, or neurological involvement such as head tremors, excitement, star gazing, flaccid paralysis, or convulsions. The time from exposure to death can range from 6 to more than 10 weeks. Animals often die of secondary bacterial infections. OPMV should be included in the differential diagnosis in boids with neurological symptoms suspected of Inclusion Body Disease. 
The virus may overwhelm the immune system, with death occurring before a detectable antibody response. Improper husbandry and environmental conditions may play a critical role in immunologic incompetence, particularly the absence of a thermal gradient. 

*Chronic "Poor Doer"*
Anorexia, hypophagia, and regurgitation are the earliest signs and have been seen up to seven months before any other signs of disease. Animals exhibit other general signs of debilitation, such as reluctance to move, increased use of heat plates, emaciation and poor muscle tone. Respiratory symptoms include variable degrees of stridor and dyspnea, often developing into secondary bacterial pneumonia. Gastrointestinal signs may include gaseous bowel distention, mucoid diarrhea, malodorous stools and protozoal overgrowth. Directed antiprotozoal and antibacterial treatment increase survival times.
Specimens usually have high titers. However, antibody presence does not prevent viral shedding, as shown by animals able to infect or induce seroconversion in cagemates. These snakes eventually succumb to the disease but actively shed virus and pose the greatest threat to the collection.

*Clinically Healthy Animals*
Specimens may remain asymptomatic for up to 10 months, although most individuals eventually become chronic "poor doers." Sustained high titers may be indicative of a chronic carrier state and not necessarily immunity. Some specimens have been documented as overcoming a viral encounter and surviving.
In the authors' experience with a paramyxovirus outbreak, the animals with a regular appetite became anorectic, and respiratory compromise developed. They became severely lethargic and died within 1 week of the onset of signs. A few specimens had horizontal head tremors develop that varied from subtle to broad-swinging movements frequently accompanied with star gazing behavior. One specimen, a Bushmaster (Lactesis mutus), did not show any clinical signs despite a seropositive status for 9 months. A Northern Copperhead (Agkistrodin contortrix) placed in an adjacent aquarium did not have a titer or lesions develop after 8 weeks of exposure to the Bushmaster.

*Diagnosis*
Presumptive diagnosis of Paramyxovirus infection may be based on a history of exposure and clinical signs. Ill animals should be closely monitored. A thorough clinical examination should be performed, including pulmonary auscultation and fecal examination. If abnormal lung sounds are detected, transtracheal washes for cytology and bacterial culture should be performed because both secondary bacterial and verminous pneumonia are common. 
If OPMV is suspected, serum should be assayed for the presence of antibody with Hemagglutination inhibition (HI). Titers only reflect exposure, and a rising titer is necessary for diagnosis of active disease. Seroconversion generally takes more than 8 weeks. The laboratory of Dr Elliot Jacobson at the University of Florida, the University of Tennessee and the Texas State Diagnostic Laboratory currently perform HI serologic testing for titers to OPMV. Titer do not necessarily correspond among laboratories because different test antigens are used in each.
Any animal suspected to have died of OPMV should be necropsied as soon as possible. Blood should be collected, cetrifuged and serum frozen pending histologic findings. Three sets of tissue are recommended to be collected. Special attention should be given to include Lung (cranial, mid and caudal sections), liver, kidney and splenopancreatic tissue in all sets of tissue saved. Garner (Northwest ZooPath, personal communication) also recommends brain and salivary gland.
The first set of tissues should be preserved in 10% neutral buffered formalin for conventional staining and microscopic examination.; the second should be placed in formalin for 48 hours, then removed and placed into 70% ethanol. This improves the likelihood of finding lesions with special staining techniques. A third set of tissues should be frozen and kept for virus isolation, should this be indicated by histopathologic findings.
Gross pathologic lesions range from no visible lesions to clear mucus or blood in the oral cavity, slight pulmonary congestion and a frothy serous or hemorrhagic exudate in the lung and air sacs. Severe cases may exhibit caseous exudative pneumonia that results from the secondary infections. 
Histologic lesions in the respiratory system include proliferation of epithelial cells and thickening of the pulmonary septa. Macrophages, heterophils and mononuclear cells often infiltrate the tissue, and moderate amounts of cellular debris, bacterial colonies, and exudate can be found in the primary bronchus and air spaces. Rarely, epithelial cells may contain eosinophilic intracytoplasmic inclusions. If the brain is involved, an encephalitis can be observed, with multifocal areas of gliosis and minimal perivascular cuffing. Moderate ballooning of axon fibres may occur in the brain stem and proximal spinal cord. In many snakes with paramyxoviral lesions in the lung, hepatic pathology also consists of diffuse hepatic necrosis or multifocal pyogranulomatous inflammation. Hyperplasia of pancreatic ducts acinar cells with cystic dilation have also been observed. In the salivary glands, ductular dilation, flattening and crowding of ductular epthelium, and accumulation of cellular debris and secretory material may be noted in the ductular lumina.
Definitive diagnosis of OPMV infection requires isolation of the virus from tissues. Thus far, this has only been achieved with tissue samples harvested at postmortem examination.
Electron microscopy can be used to show virions budding from the apical membranes of type I and type II alveolar cells.
Occasionally, intracytoplasmic inclusions can be observed in affected cells and consisting of paramyxoviral nucleocapsid material.
Immunofluorescence and immunoperoxidase staining techniques have also been developed to show viral antigen in affected tissues. In Situ hybridisation has recently been used to identify paramyxoviral nucleic acid._


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## tempest (Dec 4, 2006)

Thanks for reproducing that Nightowl.  Bit of a read with some of those words! :shock:


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## rockman (Dec 5, 2006)

Interesting read , Nightowl . Thanks for posting this , all herp people should have a good read and a good long think about what they do . Jim


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## Kyro (Dec 5, 2006)

Thanks for that Nightowl, it takes a couple of reads for it to sink in but well worth the effort  Maybe the mods could make this thread sticky so it's always easily found for new APS members, or anyone that missed this thread


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## nightowl (Dec 6, 2006)

That would be great if we could make this thread sticky Kyro, I think more people should read this info and take it seriously. If you're like me and tend to skip through larger posts because "I couldn't be bothered reading all that!", then think again what will happen to your collection when you get the same laziness with quarantine!


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## Matty01 (Dec 6, 2006)

thankyou for sharing with us that info, it puts into perspective this disease. So much for those "breeding loans" and swaps new/inexperienced keepers go on about. 
cheers Matt


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## nightowl (Dec 18, 2006)

Bump.... Maybe this info isn't important enough to make a sticky thread out of?


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## rockman (Dec 18, 2006)

nightowl said:


> Bump.... Maybe this info isn't important enough to make a sticky thread out of?



No it wasn't that important nightowl , there is more important things to look at , like , watching a snake eat or shed , stuff that we have never seen or heard of . Jim LOL


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## nightowl (Dec 18, 2006)

:lol: I guess so! 

Seriously though, more newbies in the hobby brings more 'dodgy' dealers in the future (people out to make a quick buck) and although this virus may have been around for decades, the potential to spread OPMV has never been so huge.

Shane


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## rockman (Dec 18, 2006)

nightowl said:


> :lol: I guess so!
> 
> Seriously though, more newbies in the hobby brings more 'dodgy' dealers in the future (people out to make a quick buck) and although this virus may have been around for decades, the potential to spread OPMV has never been so huge.
> 
> Shane



Unfortunatly Shane , you can see how important the people think this virus is , by how long this thread lasted this time and like many times before . It is quite sad to think what is going to happen in the future and what is happening now . As i have said before , " Welcome to the future of herps " . Jim


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## Hickson (Dec 18, 2006)

Thread is now stuck.

Nightowl: could you please list the year of Copyright, the publisher, the ISBN and - if possible - the page numbers the information came from?

Ta 



Hix


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## nightowl (Dec 18, 2006)

Sure Hix,

Reptile Medicine & Surgery (Second Edition) - Douglas R. Mader, MS, DVM, DABVP
©2006, 1996 by Elsevier Inc.
Publisher: Saunders Elsevier

ISBN-13: 978-0-7216-9327-9
ISBN-10: 0-7216-9327-X

OPMV information on pages 858, 859, 860 & 861


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## adbacus (Dec 18, 2006)

Can anyone tell me if this colombovac actually works????

I was aware of colombovac's existence. Thought about it and tried to do some research and found this article. It's almost 5 years old though.

http://sidewinder78.tripod.com/TheSidewinderRanch/id31.html


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## nightowl (Dec 18, 2006)

Sounds very interesting. Surely there has been more studies done on this? Would possibly be worth trying on suspected infected snakes.


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## adbacus (Dec 18, 2006)

Maybe we should give Tim Hyndman a buzz?


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## nightowl (Dec 18, 2006)

I'll email Tim when I get home from work. You would think he'd know about Colombovac though? Anyway, worth mentioning to him regardless


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## dee4 (Jan 15, 2007)

Interesting read, thanks for posting. 
This will be printed and given out for info along with other collected paperwork to give out to potential newbies to read. Thanks for sharing this vital bit of info.


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## horsenz (Jan 30, 2007)

many thanks for taking the time to put this on here nightowl.very intresting to read


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## xycom (Feb 21, 2007)

Thanks for posting...

Reptiles Australia Vol 3 Issue 2 had an interesting article on OPMV, an outbreak at the Aust Reptile Park.

Scary stuff..!

Have any cases been found in wild specimens?
Would a good herp vet be able to organise tests on suspected animals?


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## moosenoose (Feb 21, 2007)

Thanks Nightowl, very interesting read.


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## adbacus (Feb 21, 2007)

xycom said:


> 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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## xycom (Feb 22, 2007)

adbacus said:


> there has been a huge decline in the presence of herps and Australian Native Flora and fauna within the last 30 odd years.
> 
> quote]
> 
> I've noticed a decline repile numbers around the west of Melbourne, othors have also mentioned a big decline recently.


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## xycom (Feb 27, 2007)

It's not airbourne according to Raymond Hoser


> All transmission in over a dozen confirmed cases was by fluids, in the form of blood (via mites), water bowls, cleaning cloths or feeding utensils as in forceps.
> Airborne transmission did not occur even when affected and unaffected snakes sat within 3 cm of one another and with their cages connected via air-holes in direct line of sight, even though they remained in such a position for weeks.


 
http://www.smuggled.com/OPMV3F.htm


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## xycom (Mar 1, 2007)

I hope it's OK, I've copied what you wrote and sent it in to Wildlife Victoria for their news letter.


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## -Peter (Mar 1, 2007)

xycom said:


> It's not airbourne according to Raymond Hoser
> 
> 
> http://www.smuggled.com/OPMV3F.htm


 

first line in the link you have

"(Editor's note: Since publication of this communication at end of June 2003, Electron Micrograph (EM) results have shown the virus to be a Reovirus."

as such the Hoser article has no relevance to OPMV.


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## olivehydra (Mar 1, 2007)

consequence said:


> first line in the link you have
> 
> "(Editor's note: Since publication of this communication at end of June 2003, Electron Micrograph (EM) results have shown the virus to be a Reovirus."
> 
> as such the Hoser article has no relevance to OPMV.



I said as much and the post went walkies? Even clarified it as being "imo".


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## cris (Mar 1, 2007)

The thing is with a virus they apparently cant diagnose in a living animal(for some reason?) is that infected animals can show no symptoms and potentially carry the disease while others immune systems will 'defeat' the virus.

Is there any accurate information on the spread of this virus?

I think it would be a good idea for big snake breeders to donate a fair amount of profits into research, with a bit of money the problem shouldnt be hard to solve IMO


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## adbacus (Mar 2, 2007)

A virus can be detected in any living animal with the tests I described above. The problem is getting the right genetic markers and sequence. A virus in its general form is hard to isolate without knowing key markers and its pathology. This is due to the fact that they bind with the host cells DNA and it becomes incorporated into the viral strand. This is why it changes and different strains develop. If we could preempt the changes in the viral strands, we wouldn't have the cold and certainly we wouldn't be so worried about Bird Flu.

The studies on OPMV IMHO does not directly show key correlations of the transmissability of the virus. Hence, this is why standard precautions ( as what is used by health staff ) is what has been recommended.

Research is in there. Tim Hyndman is apparently doing a huge study in WA and yes money does help, but researching genetic markers may run into the millions IMO. A cure may be years away or minutes. Until then I will attempt to manage as best I can and use universal precautions.


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## xycom (Mar 2, 2007)

Excuse my ignorance but what is "IMO"


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## IsK67 (Mar 2, 2007)

In My Opinion.

Bookmark this. It'll help. http://www.netlingo.com/

IsK


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## Chimera (Mar 2, 2007)

cris said:


> The thing is with a virus they apparently cant diagnose in a living animal(for some reason?) is that infected animals can show no symptoms and potentially carry the disease while others immune systems will 'defeat' the virus.
> 
> Is there any accurate information on the spread of this virus?
> 
> I think it would be a good idea for big snake breeders to donate a fair amount of profits into research, with a bit of money the problem shouldnt be hard to solve IMO



I think greater benefit will come out of information about possible transmission mediums. Unfortunately there is a great deal of irrational fear about OPMV at the moment. It wouldn't surprise me if the thought would cross a breeders mind "if I offer up information about the OPMV deaths I have had, will I be blacklisted in peoples minds". 

I am not saying all breeders are thinking this, but no matter how well you can account for your biosecurity procedures and how well you've limited the impact people will still think "wasn't he the guy who had OPMV in his collection".

IMO (in my opinion) a simpler starting point would be to continue the education campaign within the reptile keeper community to remove the irrational fear and replace it with intelligent responsibilty. If people like olivehydra and nightowl continue to offer information about their keeping practices and OPMV outbreaks we can draw correlations between cases and identify potential transmission mediums.


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## xycom (Mar 2, 2007)

Do you have contact details for Tim or any articles on the topic from him?


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## cris (Mar 2, 2007)

It would be very easy to do a study to find out how its transmitted all thats needed is money, or is their already a study being conducted?


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## adbacus (Mar 2, 2007)

cris said:


> It would be very easy to do a study to find out how its transmitted all thats needed is money, or is their already a study being conducted?



It isn't as easy as you think. Until the actual pathogen (bug) is isolated and defined with the specific gene markers, the study would be flawed. As stated before, the bug, needs to be specifically isolated before management and cure can be defined. 

Who knows, it may not be a bug at all but an auto immune disease caused by continuous breeding of a limited gene pool, or a prionic pathogen caused by using rodents as a food source (i.e. Jakob Kreutzfeldt's /Mad Cow disease) - I certainly do not know.

As stated by others, there is a theory that some snakes have some form of immunity or partial immunity or are carriers. The carriers you wouldn't unless a definitive test is found.

There are plenty of other diseases out there and OPMV is greatly banded out. IBD and other reoviruses also cause very similar signs and symptoms as well as very similar post mortem tissue histology. I believe that if ppl do not know they just point to OPMV and cause panic.

My advise is to learn and utilise universal precautions for all your herps. Use quarrantine processes on new snakes. Listen to the more experienced herpers here who give advice. Learn from those who have dealt with a confirmed outbreak of the disease in their collections and be aware of your snakes health.


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## cris (Mar 2, 2007)

To find out how its spreads would be easy, i could do it if i had money, facilities, snakes and could be bothered, the other stuff is alot harder and needs heaps more money.

You just get snakes such as Crotalids and try various forms of transmition in an experiement. It is so simple i dont understand why it hasnt been done, or im i missing something ?


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## Mrs Mac (Mar 2, 2007)

thanks for the info nightowl it was a very interesting read.


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## Chimera (Mar 2, 2007)

cris said:


> To find out how its spreads would be easy, i could do it if i had money, facilities, snakes and could be bothered, the other stuff is alot harder and needs heaps more money.
> 
> You just get snakes such as Crotalids and try various forms of transmition in an experiement. It is so simple i dont understand why it hasnt been done, or im i missing something ?



The point I'm making cris is that we could achieve a lot without this funding. The more open people are about cases the better information we will have in the short term prior to studies being funded let alone completed.


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## adbacus (Mar 3, 2007)

cris said:


> To find out how its spreads would be easy, i could do it if i had money, facilities, snakes and could be bothered, the other stuff is alot harder and needs heaps more money.
> 
> You just get snakes such as Crotalids and try various forms of transmition in an experiement. It is so simple i dont understand why it hasnt been done, or im i missing something ?



As I stated = the bug that causes OPMV has not been directly isolated. Other viruses may be mistaken for OPMV. So transmission study would be flawed. It is a waste of funds without the bug itself.

Otherwise look at a study on Colombovac and the efficacy of this vaccine that is already available.


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## HerpDoc (Mar 4, 2007)

I think you might be a bit confused adbacus, the cause of OPMV has been isolated a clue to that fact is in the name: Ophidian PARAMYXOVIRUS. The Paramyxovirus is an enveloped RNA virus 120 to 150um in diameter and 2 distinct subgroups have been shown to exist. Virus has been isolated and cultured but only from tissues harvested at postmortem.
The cause of IBD on the other hand has not been identified although a RETROVIRUS has been postulated to be the pathogen. This is a little harder to prove though becuase on electron microscope viral particles resembling retovirus have been seen in affected snakes but never cultured. The problem with this is that all animals carry retroviruses in their bodies but most of them are non-pathogenic so it is hard to interpret in this case.


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## cris (Mar 4, 2007)

So why dont they know how its transmitted? 

We cant cure HIV(unless caught very early) but since we know how it transfers it isnt a big problem for our society. It would be the same for OPMV once we know exactly how it transfers it will no longer be a big problem IMO

Also why cant a biopsy be done on live animals to diagnose it(obviously not brain tissue) ?

Also what has happend to IBD is it very common? cant say i have heard about it for many years.


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## olivehydra (Mar 4, 2007)

adbacus said:


> As I stated = the bug that causes OPMV has not been directly isolated. Other viruses may be mistaken for OPMV. So transmission study would be flawed. It is a waste of funds without the bug itself.
> 
> Otherwise look at a study on Colombovac and the efficacy of this vaccine that is already available.




I have looked into vaccines (including colombovac) and from what I have been told there is no vaccine - (definetely here, and "probably" overseas) that has ever been shown to work on reptiles. Colombovac is a bird vaccine I think???


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## HerpDoc (Mar 4, 2007)

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.


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## Real Life Wildlife (Apr 3, 2007)

Keep this going, this stuff is a must and knowledge on how it is spread is essential, and control. Obviously prevention is the key but controling is the next step. Any references woudl be aprreciated. Thanks for all the info guys.


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## -Peter (Apr 3, 2007)

Can food items be conclusively discounted as a source of infection as is the case with BSE and CJD. Could the similarities in the symptoms be indicative of a similar viral type or are they totally different?


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## raptor (Apr 3, 2007)

Good on you Shane! Not only should more people be aware of the disease, they should also be aware that it's not some "mystery" disease that's only found in exotics. Also, that it's not only here, but that it's almost certainly here to stay. For those unfamiliar with Mader, yes, it's expensive (currently between $240-$300) but it's worth it's weight in gold. Another must have is the British Vetinary Association's Journal of Reptile Medicine.


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## Real Life Wildlife (Apr 4, 2007)

From my knowledge the symptoms are related to the onset of other viruses or bacteria attacking the body as the immune system has dropped due to OPMV. For example a lung infection/neumonia can set in. This is a sign that could appear with a lot of viruses. Star Gazing and belly up are all signs which appear in several viruses and at the moment there is no easy way of testing the animals to see if it is OPMV until the animal dies or unless you want/can pay thousands of dollars to let a vet cut your live animals open to take a biopsy of some organs and that is still no garantee. I have been reccomended before to take microscope slides of the animals bacteria when they are healthy. This will then store what the animals bacteria is in the animals stomach when they are presumably helathy and then if you critter falls sick at a later date you can then refer back to that slide to see what bacteria are doing with in the animals stomach which can give you some sort of indication on whats going on. Talk to your vet about this and the correct way to do it. it helps!


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## extreme_pets (Oct 13, 2007)

great read glad that someone else has also tried to tell people how important knowing your animals and quarratining all new animals before adding to you collections really is thanks for that great info


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## rockman (Oct 13, 2007)

Chimera said:


> I think greater benefit will come out of information about possible transmission mediums. Unfortunately there is a great deal of irrational fear about OPMV at the moment. It wouldn't surprise me if the thought would cross a breeders mind "if I offer up information about the OPMV deaths I have had, will I be blacklisted in peoples minds".
> 
> I am not saying all breeders are thinking this, but no matter how well you can account for your biosecurity procedures and how well you've limited the impact people will still think "wasn't he the guy who had OPMV in his collection".
> 
> IMO (in my opinion) a simpler starting point would be to continue the education campaign within the reptile keeper community to remove the irrational fear and replace it with intelligent responsibilty. If people like olivehydra and nightowl continue to offer information about their keeping practices and OPMV outbreaks we can draw correlations between cases and identify potential transmission mediums.



Funny , when you read things like this , you would hope that people would do the right thing . 
What about a breeder ( still a member on here ) , had OPMV for awhile now ( maybe 1-2 years ) and still selling snakes from his collection ? . Makes it a bit hard to trust anyone eh ? . 
I think we will hearing about OPMV in the future alot more . 
Good to try and keep this thread going for the newbies .
Cheers


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## Paliadon (Mar 2, 2008)

Thanks for the info. It is great. Always good to keep abreast of these issues.


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## GravelRash (Aug 4, 2008)

*I've just had to euthanise the last 2.5yr old jungle of a trio bought late last yr with autopsy results stating OPMV.
Very disappointed and now have to keep an eye on the rest of my collection.

PLEASE people and breeders alike, if this totally TERMINAL virus has hit you recently, please reconsider selling your snakes that very seriously may be now carrying OPMV.

It is testable ONLY when the animal is too far gone-neurologically/respiritory(this is an extremely disturbing thing to observe...) or dead, and cannot and is not worth trying to medicate.

All of this heartache you can avoid passing on if you're doing herps for the right reasons and not just the $$$...
*


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## cracksinthepitch (Oct 3, 2008)

*"All of this heartache you can avoid passing on if you're doing herps for the right reasons and not just the $$$..."*
*You have hit the nail on the head there.........................*


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## GravelRash (Nov 4, 2008)

and there he is again in the for sale pages.....Floggn off his snakes at some ridiculous price, when he should have ALL his collection quarrantined !!!
very bold indeed....


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## McGrimmis (Mar 16, 2011)

One concern with viruses like OMPV is the likelyhood of them getting out into the wild and devastating wild populations. There is at least one case of a wild CCP which appeared to have the disease. The snake was euthanased and the pathology done wasn't definitive but indicated OMPV was likely. I'm not aware of any cases of wild Inclusion Body Disease (IBD) yet but it will probably appear sooner or later.

Hygiene and quarantine are just so important. Try and quarantine all snakes brought into your collection for 12 months. It sounds like a long time but it can take this long for a disease to show up.

A good document from DECCW: Hygiene protocol for the control of disease in captive snakes
http://www.environment.nsw.gov.au/resources/nature/08200HygieneProtocolsCaptiveSnakes.pdf

Buy from reputable sellers. It is not worth trying to save a few dollars and buying from the dodgy dude down the road. To read the following is scary:


> .... please reconsider selling your snakes that very seriously may be now carrying OPMV.


I hope that sellers are becoming more aware of disease issues and would like to think they would offer some follow up with husbandry advice for newbies. Too many times I've heard of people releasing their captive snakes (pythons esp.) out in the bush because they got to big and where scared to handle them. This is how these diseases are likely to get out.


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## MinaAlen (Dec 14, 2011)

Thanks for that Nightowl. It's really useful.



sports turf


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## jairusthevirus21 (Jul 24, 2012)

Very scary... reading this should be in the terms and agreements of registering to APS! LOL


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## Pythoninfinite (Jul 24, 2012)

Except that we now know that OPMV is not the primary pathogen in snakes in Australia - indeed no samples have ever proved positive to OPMV in Oz.

Jamie


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## Bluetongue1 (Jul 25, 2012)

+1. The relavent virus in Australia was mistaken for OPMV, because they share a number of obvious clinical signs and symptoms, is Sunshine Virus. At this point in time the lastest available information on this virus, authoured by Dr Shane Simpson, from Karingal Vet Hospital, is to be found in the current edition of the Scales & Tails magazine. 

Blue


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## thepythonguy (Jul 25, 2012)

so the opmv that gravelrash is referring to above was actually the sunshine virus ? not opmv which was confirmed in the autopsy


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## -Peter (Jul 25, 2012)

hang on, Would ophidian paramyxovirus be a generic term encompassing all ophidian paramyxovirii?


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## Pythoninfinite (Jul 25, 2012)

thepythonguy said:


> so the opmv that gravelrash is referring to above was actually the sunshine virus ? not opmv which was confirmed in the autopsy



To my knowledge, OPMV has never been actually "confirmed" as the cause of death in snakes in this country. As I understand it, samples sent overseas produced a similar result, which is basically "terminal disease with symptons CONSISTENT with OPMV..." - and as such, is far from confirmation. Virology is a hugely complex field, but from what I've been told, the Sunshine Virus can be tested for in live animals, which is a fantastic breakthrough, and who knows, it may even lead to the possibility of a vaccine...

Jamie


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