What you say sounds logical, but I have my doubts. Onset in pythons is so rapid that it seems likely that it is just a virus and boas just have more immunity due to evolutionary exposure. However, is this not also true that HIV alone in test tubes has shown no ill effects to human tissue, and it's been proposed a second virus may in combination with HIV be the onset of "AIDS?" I know that the feline infectious peritonitis disease in cats reminds me of the IBD situation/AIDS situation....every cat will have a titre count (exposure), but the cat is not said to "have FIP" until the count is above a certain level and an AIDS-type decline has began. Virtually everyone on the planet carries Pneumocystis virus without any ill effects, but it becomes deadly once your immunity is compromised....FIP is almost always in combination with other feline viri such as feline AIDS, feline leukemia, etc. In the wild often marmosets carry viri nonharmful to marmosets, but deadly to squirrel monkeys and vice versa...possibly one natural way of preserving territory and preventing invasive species and hybridazation, etc.

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