INCLUSION-BODY DISEASE IN BOID SNAKES

An inclusion body disease (IBD) in boid snakes (family Boidae) has bee n seen for over 20 yr in private and zoological collections of snakes in the United States, Africa, and Europe. In both a retrospective and prospective study, 70 members of the subfamily Boinae and 34 members o f the subfamily Pythoninae were evaluated. Clinical signs in affected snakes included chronic regurgitation and neurologic disorders. Centra l nervous system disease was more apparent in members of the subfamily Pythoninae than in members of the Boinae and included the inability o f animals to right themselves when placed in dorsal recumbency, head t remors, disorientation, in-coordination, and paresis. Histologic exami nation of tissues demonstrated numerous eosinophilic intracytoplasmic inclusion bodies in epithelial cells of all major organs, including ne urons in the brain and spinal cord. In all snakes with central nervous system disease, a nonsuppurative meningoencephalitis with neuron dege neration and perivascular cuffing was seen. Electron microscopic exami nation revealed viral particles in thin sections of the brain, pancrea s, and kidney, as well as in primary kidney cells cultured from affect ed snakes. The enveloped particles were an average of 110 nm in diamet er and morphologically resembled C-type particles of the family Retrov iridae. Inoculation of young Burmese pythons (Python molurus bivittatu s) with supernatant of primary cultured kidney cells from an infected boa constrictor (Boa constrictor) resulted in the development of clini cal signs and microscopic lesions seen in IBD.