Odatria_14_NOV13 - Victorian Herpetological Society

“The parents of these two are still out there,” JasonPearson, curator of Hunter Valley Zoo, said.“They are pretty easy to breed if you know what to doand it’s frightening that someone is trading these deadlysnakes illegally.“It is important to find out if these two deadly snakes arerelated or from two different sources.”Mr Pearson said DNA testing could link them with a knownbreeder.“They could come from anywhere, an amateur breederwho never got licensed,” he saidRare reptiles such as this can fetch tens of thousands ofdollars on the black market.The killer taipans sell for about $450 each.MARK MORRIThe Daily TelegraphOctober 2012Lethal Snake Viruses IdentifiedThe cause of a fatal illness that affects captive snakeshas been identified, a study has shown.The condition - called Inclusion Body Disease (IBD) -affects constrictor snakes including boas and pythons.There is no treatment and symptoms include “stargazing”- a fixed upward stare - as well as breathing problemsand general muscular paralysis.It was long suspected that the disease was caused by avirus, but until recently its identity remained elusive.The research is published in the open-access journalmBio.The female Inland Taipan responsible for biting the Kurri youthThe inland taipan requires a class 5 licence, the highestcategory of its type and is granted mainly to zoos,authorised breeders and wildlife sanctuaries. There areonly 15 licensed dealers in NSW.Police also found a death adder when they raided aproperty where one of the inland taipans was found.The first inland taipan came to authorities’ notice afterDylan Smith, 17, walked into Kurri Kurri Hospital with thesnake after being bitten. One drop of the snakes venomcan kill 100 people.Publicity surrounding his case led police to the discoveryof more illegally kept reptiles.When they raided a property in Cessnock police found twoalligators stolen from a local zoo. Another inland taipanand a death adder unrelated to the zoo theft were alsoseized.The Office of Heritage and Environment said they havejoined the investigation having taken DNA samples fromthe snakes.“Until now this was the domain of professional poachers,but it seems some teenagers and young men are going outthere because they can see quick easy cash,” an industrysource said.Boas - one of the snakes affected by the new virusIn this breakthrough study, researchers from the Universityof California San Francisco analysed samples obtainedfrom snakes diagnosed with IBD, using sensitive DNAsequencing techniques.In amongst some of the snake DNA was foreign geneticmaterial - nucleic acid - that closely resembled that presentin viruses belonging to a family called arenaviruses. Thisfamily includes Lassa Fever virus, which is associatedwith haemorrhagic fever in humans. However, there is noevidence that the newly discovered virus can pass fromsnakes to humans.The scientists were also able to grow the virus fromsamples taken from one of the snakes.Dr Mark Stenglein, who co-led the current study, said“we don’t yet have formal evidence that these virusescause the disease… although there is a good correlation[between disease and the presence of virus] … it is alsopossible that other viruses or pathogens cause a similarset of symptoms”.Arenaviruses can be divided into two main groups based29