The Nidovirus - Part 1
The new scourge of the Green Tree Python: the Morelia viridis Nidovirus (MVNV)
It is always surprising that the buyer waives a veterinary examination, with the argument to get the animal at a discount.
In doing so, he releases the buyer from the obligation to sell a verifiably healthy animal and takes the risk of infecting his stock.
The nidovirus may no longer be a central issue, but it still exists and is killing entire snake populations.
In 2014, an article caused a stir when the research group led by Joseph DeRisia (2014), from the University of California at San Francisco, discovered a virus that caused life-threatening respiratory disease in king pythons.
Respiratory disease has been known to occur in king pythons since the 1990s, but the cause was not known.
Finally, they found the previously unknown virus in the genome.
The researchers gave the pathogen the name "Ball Python Nidovirus" for short: BPNV.
In late 2017, a group of researchers from Switzerland demonstrated that the Nidovirus from the king python (BPNV) differs somewhat from that from Morelia viridis in the genome, leading to the name MVNV.
Nidovirus belongs to the order Nidovirales in which four families are classified. The virus relevant to snake keepers belongs to the family Coronaviridae, subfamily Torovirinae.
Coronaviruses infect the respiratory tract and cause paralysis of the ciliary movement of the ciliated epithelium of the respiratory tract.
Respiratory tract or respiratory system refers to the entire system of those organs that serve respiration.
A dysfunction of the cilia prevents the regulated removal of foreign substances and thus massively increases the production of mucus.
This leads to respiratory problems and expulsion of mucus.
The consequences are infections with bacteria and mycoplasma.
Acute infection is followed by death.
Unlike bacteria, viruses cannot be treated with antibiotics.
The only successful cure would be the administration of a vaccine, which is not available for snakes.
Why have researchers turned their attention to this disease?
Coronaviruses are responsible for diseases such as HIV, West Nile fever, Ebola, MERS, SARS.
They are viral diseases that can be transmitted from animals to humans.
So that's why biologists now wanted to study reptiles more for pathogens that could potentially be transmitted to humans.
Transmission to humans has not been proven.
Nevertheless, the scientists hope that the diagnosis could make it possible to understand the
role of the virus in the development of diseases.
Perhaps the knowledge gained will result in a therapy for sick reptiles.