Have D. c couperi, and every other member of the Drymarchon complex survived the wild, without the availability of reverse osmosis, carbon filtered drinking water, or their prey frozen, promptly after capture, and then thawed to correct temperature, prior to dining?
How on earth have such immune-suppressed creatures managed to get along, feeding on wild prey items and being relegated to drinking less then sterile water from canals, lakes, wells and creeks; instead of lab raised rodents, fowl and reverse osmosis, carbon filtered water?
From now on, I'm bathing the food items I offer all of my specimens in Chlorhexidine, rinsing thoroughly, blow drying, freezing, then bathing them in Chlorhexidine again!
As for water, well I will used reverse osmosis, carbon filtered water and UV sterilized water, though not prior to boiling it first! Oh, and maybe a drop of Chlorhexidine, just to be certain.
If a specimen does succumb to Cryptosporidiosis while in captivity, then other underlying factors must have been involved, to have allowed the specimen to become immunocompromised, as healthy animals should not succumb to this pathogen.
I know very few people willing to admit, especially in public, their methods of husbandry are, or have been, less then adequate. Robert, I applaud you for being one such individual, as it is critical we learn from one another’s mistakes, as there are simply too many to make, to conceive everything in a single life span.
Once again, anyone who has incurred the loss of a specimen, due to Cryptosporidiosis, especially a captive produced specimen, should take a close look at their husbandry methods.
Also, it should be mentioned how difficult it is to eradicate Cryptosporidium spp., once the pathogen is incurred, as the only effective tools for ridding the pathogen are ammonia, UV irradiation and steam.
Whoops, guess I can leave out the Chlorhexidine then!
Jeff
