Tim Hyndman

Senior Lecturer, Centre for Terrestrial Ecosystem Science and Sustainability, Murdoch University

Doctoral

The prevalence of bornavirus, nidovirus, sunshinevirus and Mycoplasma spp. in captive and free-living pythons in Western Australia

Students: Wood, Katrina

Associated Researchers: Kristin Warren, Rebecca J Vaughan-Higgins, Tim Hyndman, Lian Yeap and Simone Vitali

2016–2019

The aim of this project was to determine the prevalence of bornavirus, nidovirus, sunshinevirus and Mycoplasma spp. in pythons in Western Australia. Two captive cohorts were screened: snakes which had been confiscated by the Department of Biodiversity Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) (n=38) and snakes from Perth Zoo (n=15), for which longitudinal samples were also available for all 15 individuals for 2015 and 2017. A third cohort comprised free-living pythons captured and sampled from various locations within Western Australia (n=17). The majority of the pythons in the study were Antaresia spp., Morelia spp. and Aspidites spp.

Deep oesophageal, oral and cloacal swabs, and blood samples were collected. The swabs were screened using conventional and/or quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Where relevant, positive amplicons were sequenced.

Sunshinevirus and bornavirus were not detected in any of the pythons sampled in this study. All pythons from Perth Zoo tested negative for nidovirus. Two pythons from the confiscated cohort (5.3%; 95% CI: 0.6%, 17.7%) were positive for nidovirus. All of the free-living pythons tested negative for nidovirus, with the exception of one individual which had inconclusive results. Sampling confirmed that Mycoplasma spp. were present in all three cohorts. The highest rates of Mycoplasma spp. detection occurred within the Perth Zoo cohort in 2015 (73.3%; 95% CI: 44.9%, 92.2%) and 2017 (86.7%; 95% CI: 58.5%, 98.3%) followed by the confiscated population (52.6%; 95% CI: 35.8%, 69.0%), and finally the free-living population (35.3%; 95% CI:14.2%, 61.7%). Mycoplasma spp. were detected in snakes with a range of clinical examination findings, with the majority in clinically normal individuals. Additional studies are necessary to determine the clinical significance of Mycoplasma spp. in snakes. This research is one of only a few studies reporting virology and bacteriology screening in free-living pythons in Australia, and is the first report of Mycoplasma spp. detection in freeliving Australian python species.