I too am sorry to hear about the loss of your animals. I can relate, as I recently had a mite scare in my collection, and the thought of having a room full of parasitized animals was truly frightening.

For zonata disease, I think a few tantalizing clues have emerged over the years. The biggest questions remains unanswered - is the disease contagious, or is it caused by an opportunistic virus that all zonata have, which doesn't rear its ugly head until the environment is appropriate for the virus to thrive? A friend and successful zonata breeder believes that humidity is the key, and he has rehabilitated zonata with the disease by keeping them in a moist environment for several weeks.

I'm one of the few zonata breeders who has never seen the disease in my collection, despite bringing in stock from a number of different sources over the years. My friend thinks he has an explanation: I live near the coast, where the marine layer tends to keep the humidity in my snake room high.

Now, whether these couple data points provide the answer or not isn't clear, but I do think it's a useful clue.

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