Posted by Joe P. on June 06, 2009 at 11:10:35:
In Reply to: Re: another good study re detection posted by Norm on June 06, 2009 at 08:46:57:
Norm:
The malady we recognize as ERS has been around for many years in many species. All one need do is search “regurgitation syndrome in snakes”. It just happens to be referred to as ERS amongst those individuals involved with this particular and related species. The label is in fact a mis-nomer and should more appropriately be abbreviated to RS, but acronyms being all the rage, I suspect label ERS isn’t going to go away any time soon.
The research and testing of symptomatic individuals for Crypto. S. has been extensive and there has been much written on the subject which I won’t reiterate other than to offer my two cents worth. My experience with ERS has lead me to believe the source of the malady to be an opportunistic virus which like many such pathogens presents only when conditions are optimal for it’s replication. The stresses which trigger the onset of symptoms are likely environmental and I believe include invariant temperature and over abundance of food. I recall for example an experiment done by a herp right around the turn of the century. As an importer and emerald enthusiast he was curious to see what would happen if he released five animals into an outdoor enclosure (the facility was located in Port St.Lucie at the time) offering them only three live prey items which they were required to hunt overnight, for one night only, once a month. Another group of five animals was housed inside his facility, kept at a constant temperature (in those days the thinking was high by today’s standards) and given freshly killed or live prey every 10 to 14 days. Within seven months all five animals that were being kept in the more tightly controlled confines had developed ERS while the 100% of the animals kept in the more naturalistic setting remained asymptomatic. With the onset of winter, the outdoor experiment was over, the symptomatic animals were euthanized and the outdoor group was placed in the same cages after what was believed to be a thorough disinfection.
By spring the remaining animals had all developed the same symptoms and were subsequently euthanize.
I offer this most practical (note I did not say scientific) case study as relatively convincing evidence in support my previous conjecture. I know of no organisms other than viruses that can induce the onset of such symptoms on such an invariant level.