There is quiet a bit if research being done with IBD by Dr Elliott Jacobson at the University of Florida in Gainesville and I would recommend that he be contacted if you have any suspected cases or he will work with your vet to accept blood and tissue samples.

He has been working on this for several years and close to having a serological test to determine exposure to it once they isolate which retro is responsible for it. Once he has that, he feels a vaccine is possible.

Last I talked to him, he had identified and isolated 3 possible retroviruses, and was very positive with a little more time and funding they can. He is amazingly dedicated to this one thing, I feel it is his life's ambition to accomplish this and if anyone can, he will.

I know he has presented some info on it, but researchers are usually very protective of thier work for obvious reasons of someone else taking credit for it, but I know he has worked with many vets who think they may have clients with this problem in their colony.

Also, and I will not say the percentages, but they feel a very large percent of boids in the US have already been exposed to this, but are not showing obvious signs of it and may have it their entire life and not show signs.

This also sounds quite similar to the way OPMV and the adenovirus are contracted in other species - all very worrying and should clearly show why hygiene and quarantine is a must in every case.

yes they are unfortunately, which is why mite outbreaks should be taken seriously and not be put off for treatment. As for colubrids becoming infected, i wouldnt doubt that at some point if not already, the virus could mutate (sp?) and infect colubrids as well. There are actually studies of IBD in Palm Pit Vipers about 2 decades ago, these were some of the first recognized IBD cases.

I don't know how I missed this, but there is some pretty HUGE recent news in IBD research. An article from the American Society of Microbiology mBio journal published August 2012 documents the likely identification of the virus(es) that cause IBD. It's actually a free article to view and download:

Link to Full Article