Francesca Baggio, Udo Hetzel, Barbara Prähauser, Eva Dervas, Eleni Michalopoulou, Tanja Thiele, Anja Kipar, Jussi Hepojoki
Reptarenaviruses cause Boid Inclusion Body Disease (BIBD), a fatal disease of boid snakes with an economic and ecological impact, as it affects both captive and wild constrictor snakes. The clinical picture of BIBD is highly variable but often only limited. Intracytoplasmic inclusion bodies (IB), which develop in most cell types including blood cells, are the pathognomonic hallmark of BIBD; their detection represents the diagnostic gold standard of the disease. However, IBs are not consistently present in clinically healthy reptarenavirus carriers, which can, if undetected, lead to and maintain the spread of the disease within and between snake populations...
November 25, 2023: Viruses