FaunaClassifieds - View Single Post - Adenovirus Document from University of Florida
View Single Post
Old 04-08-2007, 08:27 PM   #24
Neverland Dragons
I do think that anything is possible. But, I do not think it is likely that dragons have always had this virus. I do know Reptile Rooms has been tracking where positives came from for quite some time and it seems to lead back to certain lines. I also believe it was around before that, but probably in small numbers. This is just my opinion. I also think the most important issue is not whom to blame, but where to go from here.

Is there anyway to find out how many colonies were tested at the Univ of FL? I thought this test used to cost much more than $60 and it was used to confirm the presence of adenovirus in sick animals versus testing healthy appearing animals to see if they are carriers of the virus. In other words, how many of the animals tested were already suspected of having adenovirus and how many animals were tested because a private owner/breeder wanted to know if their dragons carried this virus but were otherwise healthy? It is important to know the numbers for each category. I do think that their tests show that this is wide spread, but I do not think that 500 tests without any distinction between dragons with symptoms vs asymptomatic dragons is an adequate representation of the entire U.S. bearded dragon population.

Now, let's assume that 90% of the dragon population has this. If Sandfire produced 9000 babies last year and Dachiu produced 4000 that is 13,000 total. 1,300 would represent adeno negative dragons. But, there are way more dragons than that in the U.S. Say, there are 100,000 dragons. That would mean roughly 10,000 are adeno free. I feel that there have got to be adeno negative dragons out there and it is premature to act on the assumption that all bearded dragons have this virus.