Abstract
Inclusion body disease (IBD) is caused by reptarenaviruses and constitutes one of the most notorious viral diseases in snakes. Although central nervous system disease and various other clinical signs have been attributed to IBD in boid and pythonid snakes, studies that unambiguously reveal the clinical course of natural IBD and reptarenavirus infection are scarce. In the present study, the prevalence of IBD and reptarenaviruses in captive snake collections and the correlation of IBD and reptarenavirus infection with the clinical status of the sampled snakes were investigated. In three IBD positive collections, long-term follow-up during a three- to seven-year period was performed. A total of 292 snakes (178 boas and 114 pythons) from 40 collections in Belgium were sampled. In each snake, blood and buffy coat smears were evaluated for the presence of IBD inclusion bodies (IB) and whole blood was tested for reptarenavirus RNA by RT-PCR. Of all tested snakes, 16.5% (48/292) were positive for IBD of which all were boa constrictors (34.0%; 48/141) and 17.1% (50/292) were reptarenavirus RT-PCR positive. The presence of IB could not be demonstrated in any of the tested pythons, while 5.3% (6/114) were reptarenavirus positive. In contrast to pythons, the presence of IB in peripheral blood cells in boa constrictors is strongly correlated with reptarenavirus detection by RT-PCR (P<0.0001). Although boa constrictors often show persistent subclinical infection, long-term follow-up indicated that a considerable number (22.2%; 6/27) of IBD/reptarenavirus positive boas eventually develop IBD associated comorbidities.
Highlights
Introduction9], it was not until recently that a causal relationship with novel divergent arenaviruses could be demonstrated [4,5,10,11,12,13,14]
As previously reported [1,24,25], it should be noted that many boa constrictors showed subclinical infections at the moment of sampling and long-term follow-up was based on a sampling of a limited number of collections, our findings indicate that it may take several years before infection becomes clinical in Inclusion body disease (IBD)+
Due to mutations in the primer binding regions [3,4,13,14,24]. The results of this large-scale study demonstrate that IBD and reptarenaviruses are highly prevalent in captive boa constrictors and that both boas as well as pythons can act as asymptomatic carriers of reptarenaviruses
Summary
9], it was not until recently that a causal relationship with novel divergent arenaviruses could be demonstrated [4,5,10,11,12,13,14]. These negative-sense RNA viruses were classified as members of the newly-formed genus Reptarenavirus, in the family Arenaviridae [15]. Based on a recent in vivo experimental infection study, Koch’s postulates were fulfilled for a Golden reptarenavirus (the type species of the genus, previously known as Golden Gate virus, GGV) as a causative agent of IBD [5]
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