Reptile & Amphibian Forums

An acquaintance of mine was looking into a blood
parasite that was not being detected in the Saharans
called microfilarie.

Just wanted to let make sure everyone is especially aware of this.

I've done some more research on this after losing Iris in January to this.

Testing costs upwards of $10,000, and even then it's not a certainity that they will find it if it is there.

It mimics pneumonia, and if the animal is treated for pneumonia, then it speeds up the rate of death.

Something in the pneumonia anitbiotics causes it to accelerate at a speed so fast enough to kill them within 72 hours of them being treated.

I just figured you all should be updated from time to time about this subject since it affects all those with Saharan Uromastyx.

Don't worry, it isn't contagious to any other type of Uromastyx.
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2 Mali Uromastyx-Ares & Apollo
2 Bearded Dragons- Draco & Hades
0.1.1 Leopard Gecko's-Kalypso & Phoenix
1 Tokay Gecko-Sid Vicious
1 Tarantula-Peter Parker
1 Amazon Red Head Parrot-Pancho
1 African Gray Parrot-Keya
1 Dog-Cheeka
1 Zebra Finch-Beeps

Triad,

I heard a while ago that someone was looking into microfilaria but have not heard that anything positive turned up. As blood work, antigen testing, or electron microscopy should reveal the presence of this parasite, I cannot imagine where you are getting your figures for the cost of testing. Even if they found microfilaria and were trying to species it out, I cannot imagine the cost being near the figure you are giving.

You made some factual statements regarding microfilaria actually being found in geyri such as:
“Although saharans have a tiny little parasite in their blood, and it's only in saharans,”
“It mimics pneumonia, and if the animal is treated for pneumonia, then it speeds up the rate of death.”
“Testing costs upwards of $10,000”
“Don't worry, it isn't contagious to any other type of Uromastyx”

As your goal is to make sure everyone is especially aware of this issue, I would like to know the basis of your claims.

Could you give some actual facts to support your claims such as who is doing the research, (clinic, university, or lab), what ‘type’ of testing costs $10,000, how many geyri microfilaria was found in, the species found if identified, how much smaller (micrometers) is this microfilaria than other known species, and how is this organism spreading through the geyri population if not by a vector?

Did your friend indicate that this is like other microfilaria which is spread through the blood stream and end up migrating to tissue? If so, is your friend linking this directly to migration to the lung tissue rather than other organs or tissue in the body?

I am very interested in this issue. I have heard hearsay that someone ‘suspected’ microfilaria but have not heard any concrete evidence of this being found in multiple (or even one) geyri. Now that you have the ‘facts’ to warn everyone about this issue publicly, I look forward to hearing back from you with the details.

I had heard about this two years ago. A guy who ran a local reptile shop had a girlfriend who worked as a vet tech and from what I remember they were doing testing for this due to the large numbers of newly imported geyri that were dying. I know they were starting to get some results from the animals they had tested, then the guy sold the business and that's the last I heard of it. It seem such a shame that these beautiful animals seem to die all to often. I had even conducted a very non-scientific survey on the uromastyx list about deceased uros, asking the species, length of time owned, symptoms, length of time from symptom onset to demise, treatments if any, etc. The largest number by species was geyri. I hope that in the near future someone can figure out the problem.

Pam

Pam,

I am very interested in hearing back from Triad on this as well as I have been working on the illness impacting geyri for well over a year now. When I first heard that someone was looking into microfilaria I thought to myself ‘this is an unlikely candidate for the heavy losses of geyri’. The majority of blood parasites are spread by vectors which led me to the conclusion that heavy losses would be rare.
However, I could see where maybe larva of something like ancylostomatoidea or filaroididea (those species not requiring an intermediate host)could be found in the blood and might be a valid concern. Even so, I would think that lung lesions and the presence of the organism in the tissue would be readily found by a qualified pathologist. I do not see where this would take years of research unless dealing with a new species. I certainly think that we would have heard something in the last few years regarding at least what family of parasite was found and the prevalence.

I've got a friend who works with the US government, concerning infectious diseases.

I asked him to look into finding out more about this for me. He's since told me that it is contained in the Saharans blood stream, and it causes the Saharan infected to exhibit pneumonia like symptoms.

I have a fax from him somewhere here (however my house is a bit of a mess, especially the computer table, but ESPECIALLY the area I keep my papers).

He added up the total costs of all the tests done to detect it (lab hours *which would account for the cost, amount paid to the person peforming tests* equipment and the actual procedures *the test it using 5 different, very effictive methods).

I may be able to get him to send me a picture of what the parasite looks like.

But I can't really get Tons of details about the research involved because he uses the resources given to him by his boss (ie: US government, like the things he uses to test).
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2 Mali Uromastyx-Ares & Apollo
2 Bearded Dragons- Draco & Hades
0.1.1 Leopard Gecko's-Kalypso & Phoenix
1 Tokay Gecko-Sid Vicious
1 Tarantula-Peter Parker
1 Amazon Red Head Parrot-Pancho
1 African Gray Parrot-Keya
1 Dog-Cheeka
1 Zebra Finch-Beeps

Triad,

So your friend that works for the government in infectious disease control happens to have geyri and be involved in independent research or is the government now testing uromastyx?

Is your friend possibly referring to the work the cdc is doing on the black fever illness spread to humans from sand flies?

I have been working with a well-known pathology lab and a major university that also has its own infectious diseases and parasitology departments. I am somewhat familiar with most of the threadworms and a whole host of other parasites specific to reptiles and some that have not been tied to reptiles but could possibly be unidentified culprits. I have a kazoo of medical and parasitological books (human and animal) that go into just about every parasite known to man. (at the printing of course) I am personally aware of the cost of testing such as ELIZA, ( assay) , pcr, electron microscopy, all forms of blood screening…ect.
Although I realize that the government can get out of line with charging, I guarantee you that it would not cost me $10,000 to test for the same parasite.

As you say this is your friend who gave you this information, it should not be too difficult to ask a few simple questions of your friend regarding your microfilaria claim such as:

What family, genus, species was found
What is the route of transmission and life cycle (this could partially be answered with the first question)
How many geyri was this organism found in
What are the five tests that were used to identify this organism
What data led to the conclusion that this parasite is specific to geyri

If the government is involved in testing uromastyx and have come to the conclusion that this is limited to only uromastyx, I assume that they no longer feel the need to continue testing as it does not pose a threat to the human population. If these conclusions have already been met, I see no reason why the information would not be made public.

Posting a photo of an unknown parasite will do very few of us any good without additional data. Getting the above ‘basic’ facts I have requested to support your claim will shed more light on the situation.

Actually we met through one of my websites. He lives in the same state as me (IL).

He has a couple of mali uromastyx.

I asked him if he could possibly get ahold of a couple of Saharans to test them. He said that he might be able to because the petstore (one of the chains, I'm not going to mention, you can probably guess who it is) in his city does not take care of their animals. So he asked one of his friends if they'd go in there and take the Saharans.

He did and gave them back to my friend. He has been taking care of them(there are 4 of them) for the past 3 months now. He uses their blood for the work.

Turns out upon further questioning of the chain store that they are WC Saharan Uromastyx.

Both of us are trying to figure out if the parasite is something they come into contact with in the wild, all 3 saharans I got were WC and not CB so that could account for why all 3 of mine had it. Maybe wild saharans come into contact with something that other uromastyx don't. Maybe they eat something or are exposed to something that the others are not.

Or maybe they are just more prone to getting parasitic infections of any kind then other uromastyx.

All are just hypothesis right now that we are both working on.

$10,000 is the cost of the testing he told me. BUT that is the government, I believe that in independent vet or just a vet would run the tests and they'd probably only cost upwards of $1,000 (vets are real expensive near me since they have to send the stuff off themselves for tests, no good herp vets here).

>>What family, genus, species was found

Still just a theory, but the saharans may(may have been) exposed to this parasite when they were little, or maybe they are exposed to it only in the wild.

>>What is the route of transmission and life cycle (this could partially be answered with the first question)

Life cycle, not sure as of yet. The 4 he has are only about a year or two old, and some diseases can lay dormaint for quite some time (like I probably have Crohns Disease*my mom's got it, and I have IBS right now so I'll probably get it*, but it won't fully take effect until I'm in my 20's or 30's).
>>How many geyri was this organism found in

It was found in all 4 wc that he has. I was going to send out Iris to him, I had to freeze her since it was January when she died. But I remembered that in February we had this warm spell for some reason (stupid weather needs to make up its mind here) and it got to 80 one day so I went out and buried her next to Orion and Phoebe.
>>What are the five tests that were used to identify this organism

Once again, the five tests are listed on the fax I recieved from him, I can't find it right now so I'm going to spend my day today cleaning to find it and then I'm going to scan it in and show you all.
>>What data led to the conclusion that this parasite is specific to geyri

Well he took blood from his mali uro's (also wild caught) and neither of them have it, yet all 4 saharans do.

This parasite also may be indegenious to the region where saharans live.
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2 Mali Uromastyx-Ares & Apollo
2 Bearded Dragons- Draco & Hades
0.1.1 Leopard Gecko's-Kalypso & Phoenix
1 Tokay Gecko-Sid Vicious
1 Tarantula-Peter Parker
1 Amazon Red Head Parrot-Pancho
1 African Gray Parrot-Keya
1 Dog-Cheeka
1 Zebra Finch-Beeps

Triad,

Correct me if I am wrong but it sounds as if you asked someone you met online to buy some geyri and run test on them to check for illness and this person agreed to do so. The geyri were randomly selected from a pet store and showed no signs or symptoms of illness. The four geyri randomly selected were extensively tested for the last three months by your online friend with tests amounting to $10,000.( government rate- approx $1000 private cost) These tests revealed the same parasite in all four asymptomatic geyri but the family, genus, species of the parasite is not known. The transmission and life cycle of the organism (how the geyri were original infected with the organism and how it is passed to further geyri) is unknown. You believe that this organism is indigenous to the native location of geyri but you are uncertain of the specific organism you are looking at. Something in the antibiotic that treats pneumonia speeds up the rate of death causing uromastyx to die within 72 hours of treatment. The only four geyri testing positive for this deadly parasite are all still alive and being cared for by your friend. All three of your geyri had this parasite although none of the three were tested. Your friend tested his two mali which showed no sign of this unidentified parasite.

From this you and your friend have concluded that wc geyri have a blood parasite that is not being detected that mimic pneumonia, treatment for pneumonia will kill the uromastyx, and that this is not contagious to other uromastyx due to the fact that two malis tested negative. This is all dealing with a an organism that you cannot identify, that you admittedly know nothing about (life cycle, transmission), and which did not create an adverse health situation in the four specimen’s in which it was supposedly found.

Did I miss anything?

>>Triad,
>>
>>Correct me if I am wrong but it sounds as if you asked someone you met online to buy some geyri and run test on them to check for illness and this person agreed to do so. The geyri were randomly selected from a pet store and showed no signs or symptoms of illness. The four geyri randomly selected were extensively tested for the last three months by your online friend with tests amounting to $10,000.( government rate- approx $1000 private cost) These tests revealed the same parasite in all four asymptomatic geyri but the family, genus, species of the parasite is not known. The transmission and life cycle of the organism (how the geyri were original infected with the organism and how it is passed to further geyri) is unknown. You believe that this organism is indigenous to the native location of geyri but you are uncertain of the specific organism you are looking at. Something in the antibiotic that treats pneumonia speeds up the rate of death causing uromastyx to die within 72 hours of treatment. The only four geyri testing positive for this deadly parasite are all still alive and being cared for by your friend. All three of your geyri had this parasite although none of the three were tested. Your friend tested his two mali which showed no sign of this unidentified parasite.
>>
>>From this you and your friend have concluded that wc geyri have a blood parasite that is not being detected that mimic pneumonia, treatment for pneumonia will kill the uromastyx, and that this is not contagious to other uromastyx due to the fact that two malis tested negative. This is all dealing with a an organism that you cannot identify, that you admittedly know nothing about (life cycle, transmission), and which did not create an adverse health situation in the four specimen’s in which it was supposedly found.
>>
>>Did I miss anything?
>>

This person came to my forum, he knows that I have uro's and he had just gotten some of his own. We've known each other for about 2 years now.

He introduced his 4 wc saharans he got at the petstore with his 2 wc mali's and they didn't get sick.

Something was detected in the saharans blood that wasn't detected in his mali's, and he hadn't seen anything like that on the internet so we both assume that it is microfilarie.

We could be wrong, but he hasn't found anything on the net resembling this parasite thing.
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2 Mali Uromastyx-Ares & Apollo
2 Bearded Dragons- Draco & Hades
0.1.1 Leopard Gecko's-Kalypso & Phoenix
1 Tokay Gecko-Sid Vicious
1 Tarantula-Peter Parker
1 Amazon Red Head Parrot-Pancho
1 African Gray Parrot-Keya
1 Dog-Cheeka
1 Zebra Finch-Beeps

Triad,

Do you see how this information has changed immensely since your first post to where you are not even certain if this is microfilaria?

You made some very alarming and factual statements that are not supported by data.

If you want to pass the photo my way by email, I have a very reliable source (professor of parasitology) who has offered to look at anything that I cannot figure out on my own. I am sure that he would not have a problem giving his opinion on your parasite photo if I ask.

This is totally up to you.

I neglected to mention...

If you do want to pursue the identification of this organism, it would be helpful to have the measurements if an ocular micrometer was used.