You're right, it is scary, especially because so little is known about it.

However, if it were EASILY contracted via airborne exposure at shows, I think many of our collections would be dead.

As long as you follow strict quarantine procedures with new animals and try to obtain animals from trusted sources, you should be ok. It'd be great if there were a simple test to determine if an animal has it, but the cost associated with testing, added to the fact that the tests may be falsely negative (if the animal has IBD but hasn't developed the inclusion bodies yet), makes it unrealistic for collectors to test new animals unless it's suspected that a particular animal DOES have it.

I guess you can only do what you can to try and lessen the chances as much as possible, but just like safe drivers still get in accidents, until more is known, there's still that slight possibility there that even the most conscientious keeper could have an infected snake as long as outside animals are added to the collection.

In the same token - it's unrealistic to NOT drive a car because of fear of getting in an accident. It's good to be cautious, but try not to let the fear of IBD haunt you too much! All you can do is take good care of your animals, try not to worry about all the what-ifs.

Washing or disinfecting your hands between holding animals or cleaning cages, and not switching feeder rodents between cages helps decrease spreading anything between animals.

I wish this were a higher priority in the research community! But warm fuzzies, especially wacky primates, always come first it seems .
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Lauren Madar - OphidiaGems.com | CageMakers
1.0 BP, 1.0 Hog Is., 1.1 Hypo BCI, 1.1 Surinam BCC, 0.1 GTP

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