Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Hey guys, I posted a question about RI's in the general Boa forum and didn't get much response, so I wanted to see what you folks might know.

Boa Forum Post

I am a college student and I am currently taking a microbiology course. I have to write a term paper for the course and was hoping to find a topic in herpetology that I could write about... the biggest problem is that my topic has be researched enough that I can find references to the microorganism/relationship of interest in books in addition to however many internet sources.

So, as I wrote in my Boa forum question, my microbio professor told us a story about how he had visited a zoo to collect some feces from a Boa constrictor. His initial intent was to culture out some Salmonella bacteria. To his utter delight, he explained that he was unable to culture out any Salmonella, but rather grew several large colonies of Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria - from the boa's feces. He rattled off several characteristics of these microbes, which I can't remember well enough now to repeat, but one of the things he said about these bacteria suggested to me that they could be a common culprit of RI's in Boas.

I am really interested in the implications of a harmless microbial resident of the gut being a potential causative factor in RI's, which tend to be a very common complaint for captive snakes.

Most of the internet research I have found on this topic relates directly to Boa constrictors. Does anyone here know of a similar relationship in python species, or if a different microbe may be more prevalent with pythons?

Thanks for your time guys

~Rebecca

PS - I haven't kept any Bloods yet, but they are definitely on my list of species I will keep some day!!

-----
1.0.0 Dumeril's Boa '04
1.1.1 Ball Pythons
[1.0.0 '05 Orange Hypo (Specter)]
[0.1.0 '05 Het Orange Hypo (Sylvia)]
[0.0.1 '03 Normal (Sue)]
0.2 American Pit Bull Terriers (40lb darling lap dogs:Brandy&Mara)

Rebecca,
Below is the response I posted in the Boa Forum and will post again here as it would apply to bloods as well. All of the bacterial culturing was done from throat swabs, and only from outwardly appearing healthy snakes. I am sure that Pseudomonas aeruginosa can be isolated from the intestinal tract of snakes, but it very rarely ever causes problems there. E-mail me at kelhal56@hotmail.com and I can supply you with some references as you asked for earlier. Thanks,

Kelly

--It has been found with several studies over the last 20 years or so that Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a very common bacterial isolate from over 90% of captive collections of boids that were sampled. Additionally, it was also found that something like 99% of all throat swabs from captive pythons tested positive for P. aeruginosa, whereas less than a third of wild caught specimens tested positive. It is a pathogenic species of gram negative bacteria that is difficult to control under disease conditions, as it shows resistance to many classes of antibiotics. Your professor is correct in that it is probably one of the main organisms responsible for RI in boids.

Seeing that the vast majority of captive specimens are carriers, it appears that it only becomes infective under conditions of stress, as most captive specimens are able to keep it in check with un-compromised immune systems. Obvious stressors to captive snakes include sub-optimal temperature regimes or humidity, inadequate hiding areas, excessive handling, crowding and incompatibility of specimens, inadequate diet and clean water, injuries, unsanitary conditions, etc. Inadequate hygiene could be a factor, but is probably not a major factor in RI incidents. I say this because most cases of RI show up in boids that are being kept in relatively sanitary conditions, as even in clean conditions, they all appear to be carriers. While all of the above stressors can initiate the onset of an RI, I believe the majority of cases are from stress issues caused by sub-optimal temps and humidity. Antibody response in reptiles is temperature dependent. Sub-optimal temps can readily compromise the immune system of captive boids, and low humidity, especially in winter months, dries and damages lung tissue and exposes it to infection by these already existing organisms.

PAST HAS SUGGESTED THAT THIS PATHOGEN ONLY COMMENLY OCCURS IN CAPTIVE SPECIES BOTH PYTHONS AND BOAS. MANY YEARS AGO DR. RICHARD ROSS AND GERALD MARZAK MADE A TRIP TO S.E. ASIA AND NEW GUINEA AND TOOK HUNDREDS OF CULTURES FROM WILD BOIDS AND IF MY MEMORY IS CORRECT THEY FAILED TO FIND A SINGLE WILD SNAKE WITH THAT GRAM NEGATIVE BACTERIA. YET 100% OF CAPTIVES WERE INFECTED. THIS IS NOT A NEW DISCOVERY BUT AN OLD ONE. NO ONE IS SURE WHY THIS OCCURS JUST THAT IT DOES. IF YOU WANT MORE INFO CONTACT ME AND I'LL PUT YOU IN TOUCH WITH GERRY. THANKS..TOM CRUTCHFIELD

-