Reptile & Amphibian Forums

Just wanted to know if anyone knows whether or not this is possible? I don't have any wild-caught females, but with all of them being sold as "ready for breeding", I was curious as to whether or not you could get "clean" babies from a potentially parasitized adult. Thanks in advance for your feedback!

Yes internal parasites can be passed from the mother to the hatchlings. Also if the mother has any exteranal parasites like ticks or mites, they will sometimes attach to the eggs.

Jason

Interesting on the internal parasites. I wouldn't have thought that likely. What is your source? If it's common it should make us re-think considering ch to be pretty clean since 100% of their wild caught mothers have parasites (in the study I've heard of).

I had heard about ticks migrating to the egg clutch waiting to disperse on the hatchlings.

You think CH babies do not have internal parasites? It is true that many of these parasites will not cause the snakes any harm as they mature, but they are present. A snakes normal flora is very hard to identify from the harmful parasites...

Jason

I've only had a few captive hatched (i.e. wild bred and laid and then imported) babies tested but my vet (who literally wrote the book) on reptile parasites didn't find anything. On the other hand I have picked up parasites in older captive bred animals from captive bred rodents. Are you basing your belief that internal parasites can be passed from mother to egg on person experience with captive hatched animals turning up with parasites later in life? While I certainly would be suspicious of animals that spent any time in the third world I think they ship them out very quickly and may not even give them water to drink first. Maybe in some cases the parasite transmission is coming from somewhere else after they hatch, quite possibly even after they are in a captive colony.

I was actually advised by a reptile vet that the chances of transmission from mother to the egg while in her body are next to impossible. According to him, the majority of the parasites will be picked up by the CH when they are given water before they are shipped out of Africa.
As for the external parasites, I have seen ticks migrate from the mothers to the areas where the eggs adhere to each other in a clutch within hours of being laid.

Thanks,
Scott

Well I can understand that anything living in the lungs or other organs may not pass, but anything living in the blood, I would think would pass right on to the babies. I can not logically understand how it would not...

Jason

just based on the lifecyles or stages of internal parasites, I would think transmission of most internal parasites from mother to egg wouldn't happen. I know plenty of captive hatched or captive born balls have parasites but my thoughts are that they are picking the parasites up from what they are eating and drinking. I would imagine that even captive bred balls that are fed a diet of frozen food only can still harbor some parasites.

External parasites are a different story. Little buggers like ticks and mites can move from a mother to a freshly hatched snake with ease.

Joe
Joe Compel Reptiles

Good question. I'm not sure, but I would look at how a particular parasite is normally spread. I would suspect that some may be transmitted to young but I would think most are not simply by how they start their lifecycle.
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Jay A. Martin

just guesses......

.....passed to egg through the blood..yep..that would be the only way I would think it could happen.....

now....?...what lives in the blood?.......

as far as from mother to eggs as in ticks and mites...it probably just happens that there are ticks and mites in areas frequented alot by alot of snakes..ticks by any animal......they are everywhere....even in my yard it seems....

......so.....correct answer........ask Richard Ross or David Barker or similar people with scientific training.......?....

.......as for captive eggs keeping external parasites on them..we would see them and it wouldn't happen.......

.....from African or even American water from unclean sources....yep...lots of stuff lives in there......gram negative and positive bacterias...worm eggs?....protazoas.....whatever..it has to have alot of something if it sets around long enough........
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...the goal of a parasite is to achieve sustenance without harming its host...if the parasite harms its host and the host dies, so does the parasite...

But what about the interval before death?

It depends on the type of parasite...

ROUNDWORMS (nematodes): the vast majority of intra-host stages remain within the GI tract, but ascarids are notable for their intra-host migrations(at least in mammal hosts). With these, immature stages migrate from the GI tract to the lungs, where they are coughed up, swallowed (or spat out), mature back in the small intestine, and then release eggs in the host's feces. Now, some of these migrating juvenile worms could possibly migrate to the ovary and affect follicles, but usually due to the capsule surrounding the follicle, won't enter. If the post-ovulatory oviduct were affected, the migrating parasite would probably damage the early embryo most likely leading to pre-laying death of said embryo. So it's conceivable with nematodes.

TREMATODES (flukes): These are more notable for their intra-host migrations so yes it is theoretically possible but unlikely to lead to hatchable eggs.

CESTODES (tapeworms): again usually remain in the GI tract but in abberant hosts (tapes as in most internal parasites are highly host-specific) are notable for their encysting in abnormal tissues, such as the brain.

PROTOZOANS (ie, flagellates, coccidia, amoebas): There are a vast array of protozoan parasites, some of which are known to be sexually-transmitted, and their chief effect is INFERTILITY, but this can encompass embryo death as well. In reptiles this is largely unexplored territory, but is well-understood in agricultural species (ie cows).

FLIES (that's right, the winged type): Small species particularly like to lay their eggs on incubating python eggs, and the maggots can adversely affect embryo development. This is a very real problem so watch out for them!

EXTERNAL parasites (mites & ticks): yes it is entirely possible for an affected mother to pass external parasites to her newly hatching progeny.

So, the answer can be 'YES'...

Scott J. Michaels DVM
Serpent City