FaunaClassifieds - View Single Post - Fungus Makes Snakes Look Like Mummies
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Old 11-09-2019, 09:22 AM   #3
snowgyre
There isn't much we can do to treat this disease. The fungus appears to be a widespread environmental fungus in the eastern United States that, for whatever reason, went pathogenic. Eastern indigo snakes have been "successfully" treated in captivity by Dr. Terry Norton at the Jekyll Island Sea Turtle Center, although I don't think he's published anything on his results yet, the sample size is too low. I use the word "successfully" in quotation marks because an elimination of external symptoms doesn't mean the individuals are fully clear of the infection, which often manifests itself when animals are immune-suppressed, such as during winter brumation. The treatment requires a long stay in captivity and for obvious reasons simply wouldn't work on the numbers of snakes we see infected.

However, for it to jump the Rockies I suspect eastern herpers didn't clean their boots before traveling to the west, and fungal spores were transported to novel areas. This is the same exact scenario we witnessed with white-nose syndrome in bats, another devastating fungal disease.