Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Are people acrossed the Pond finding cyptosporidia a problem in there collections? anybody any experinace in treating it? dare I say curing it? any advice, or tips gratefully resived

Cryptosporidiuum serpentis can be found in most all reptiles, even healthy specimens to some degree. The pathogen is normally not an issue unless another factor stresses the animal's immune system, such as the capture and transportation of wild specimens; one reason the proper quarantine of newly acquired specimens, especially WC, is vital.
I would not say C. serpentis is an overwhelming issue stateside, though it has wiped out a few individual collections, I am aware of, belonging to a few individuals who forewent proper quarantine and I am certain many individual cases of such have gone undiagnosed, as the vast majority of those owning herpetofauna bother with having necropsies performed upon their expired specimens.
As for treatment, there really is no cure, though the administration of Hyper-Immune Bovine Colostrum has demonstrated a minute degree of improvement in specimens harboring early clinical symptoms.
It’s important to note; C. serpentis is highly contagious among reptiles and recycling enclosures, enclosure furniture and any other husbandry equipment used for a specimen harboring C. serpentis, should not be taken lightly, as the pathogen is resistant to most conventional disinfectants, including bleach. However ammonia, I prefer Roccall-D plus, a third generation quaternary ammonium product, appears to be effective, as is steam cleaning and UV irradiation, in the eradication of the pathogen…

Best regards,

Jeff

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Jeff Snodgres
University of Arkansas
snodgresjeffreys@uams.edu
501.603.1947

I only wish people would post about a subject they actually knew something about!!.............just kidding!!LOL...good post Jeff.......who would have thought something like that would be resilliant to BLEACH as well!!,..holy smokes!!!..............Doug

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Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!

Actually, my knowledge of this area is overshadowed by that of Dr. Elliott Jacobson, who has conducted a great deal of research in regards to C. serpentis and IBD, with much of his work in these areas being funded out of his own pocket. It is to him we owe a great deal of our understanding regarding these pathogens and their effects upon herpetofauna in captivity…

Best regards,

Jeff

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Jeff Snodgres
University of Arkansas
snodgresjeffreys@uams.edu
501.603.1947

Indigos really brings back fond memories of my childhood!!, I was VERY lucky as a kid, to have parents that not only didn't mind me owning snakes, but my mom would actually buy them for me on my birthday, and Christmas!!LOL. She had a good friend that lived in the suburbs of Dade County. That lady's husband was always out collecting wild snakes everywhere around there back in the 60's and 70's.... Anyway, I had some pretty impressive Indigo's that I remember bringing to my third grade class for "SHOW & TELL"!!!LOL....also had some nice "brooksi"(just plain FL. King to me back then!), some awesome "Miami" corns, as well as Huge Yellow Ratsnakes, Scarlet Kings, Greensnakes,etc. I will NEVER FORGET as long as I live,.....when two older neighborhood kids came to my house and wanted to sell me the most GIGANTIC MONSTER of an Indigo I ever saw in my entire life to this day!!....it was every bit of 8-1/2 to 9 feet long!! and MUCH bigger around than my arm at the time(being about ten years old then)..it's head was as big as an adult mans fist!..anyway, my mom just would absolutely NOT buy it for me , no matter how much I begged her!! because she said I wasn't doing to great with school work!!LOL,....so I had to say goodbye to the possible Indigo purchase................Here's the real good part,.........those kids only wanted eight bucks for that noble monster!!LOL,..less than a DOLLAR PER FOOT!!.can you imagine that!!LOL......today, they go between $800-$1500 dollars!....... those were different times my friend........................Doug
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Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!

Those days all too well, as I grew up in South Dade Co. and ended up heading back to Florida for grad school. Over the yaers I have maintained a host of herpetofauna, but have since come full circle, in that I am now focusing on Drymarchon spp., though I also maintain some Heloderma spp., Tiliqua spp. and Carettochelys insculptawithin my private collection.
It was a blast growing up in So. Florida, back in the day, as Louis Porras was running "The Shed" and always had incredible animals there. I recall he once had a group of Cyclura ricordi and Cyclura c figginsi available and my own awe with the Cyclura spp.when I saw them, which later led to my work with them in grad school.
Oh well, you mentioning So. Florida brought back some memories and here's a photo from a time when there was still unfragmented, undeveloped habitat, D. couperi were relatively plentiful and it was legal to capture and keep them. It's a shame you were unable to get that monster you described, I used to mow lawns (a year round job down there) and catch Nerodia spp. (which I sold to local pet shops) for money to acquire snakes we couldn't catch. Heck, that monster on teh open market in FL woudl have fetched at least $50.00 back then , but today, babies are generally seelling for 1,000.00 - 1,500.00 each and a nice adult will generally sell for twice that.
I searched for scarlet kings "forever" down there, as a kid, and the only one I ever found was a DOR right in front of my house! It wasn't until later, while in high school, that I started to find them, as I worked PT at the Miami Serpentarium, and Bill told me to look for them up in the dead fronds of palm trees!

Best regards,

Jeff

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Jeff Snodgres
University of Arkansas
snodgresjeffreys@uams.edu
501.603.1947

n/p
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Better to be silent and thought a fool, than to open mouth and remove any doubt!