Eight cases of inclusion body disease in captive palm vipers (Bothriechis marchi)

摘要

Between April 1998 and June 1999, eight palm vipers (Bothriechis marchi) were diagnosed with a disease similar to inclusion body disease (IBD) of bold snakes. Signalments and clinical signs are summarized in Table 1. Six palm vipers were captive bred and two palm vipers were wild caught. All palm vipers were adults at time of death with a mean age of 8.6 yr. Three palm vipers were found dead with no premonitory clinical signs and five palm vipers had one or more of the following clinical signs: anorexia, regurgitation, paresis, and dehydration. All palm vipers had intracytoplasmic, round to oval, single to multiple, eosinophilic inclusion bodies in hepatocytes and renal tubular epithelial cells. Inclusion bodies were distributed in other organs with varying frequency. The distribution of inclusions in affected vipers is summarized in Table 2. Concurrent histologic lesions are summarized in Table 3 and included urate nephrosis, septic thrombi, and hepatocellular degeneration. Ultrastructural features of the inclusions had features similar to inclusions in boid snakes with IBD. Figure 1 depicts a flow chart pedigree analysis of the affected palm vipers. Based upon pedigree analysis, there appears to be a familial tendency for this disease in this population of palm vipers.