I think you are reading far more into this than what is there, but I can see why you may think that..... I will try to explain, but your vet probably can also explain this as it happened a few years ago with ferrets and in the past with many other species and the labs all have high positive rates and will say something like this AND not explain the stats Please do not think I am talking down to you, I want to make sure this is clear so there is no misunderstanding
Lou Ann has ran about 130 test as of Monday, I do not know if you thought this was a much higher number or not. At that time she told Dr Jacobson that figure, she had a 70% positive rate, but remember at least half of those test are breeders that are known to you and me. who had dragons related to each other (Wendy's dragons and other DBN dragons like Sunshine). Another 30 some are from other people I know that have dragons that were related to ANOTHER breeders parent dragons that at positive (their babies that were sold) I do not know how many Sunshine sent off, but counting Wendy's, Estimating Sunshine's and counting the 30 from the other breeder,,,,,,, that easily makes more than half the test from them and WOULD have most likely been positive. She may have ran more test on Highly possible positive ones that came from Sunshine and Wendy so that percent of figure is higher now naturally. There are 2 more people I know that send in several samples each, one is all clear and the other had 3 come back positive of what they sent....... again, these were related to Wendy's, Sunshine or DBN beardies.. SO that probably accounts for almost all the test she has ran so far with a few other scattered here and they individually
Some people only sent in test for the DBN dragons of their offspring, some of those are positive, some are negative... but there was a HIGH probability that they would be positive already. I do also know that at least a dozen more people(breeders and individuals) have tested clear that had DBN, Sunshine and Wendy's dragons.
Most people or breeders are not or have not in the past sent in for testing with healthy animals when they are not losing babies or adults dying that are questionable why. It's like you do not have a biopsy done unless you are ill or there is reason to believe you may need one.......... so ALL labs that did tests in the past, are going to have high positive rates as the people coming to them have a problem already. I know one lab that 100% of their test they have done are positive.....but you need to listen to the rest of the stats as they only tested 78 dragons from one set of parents who are both dead and the necropsies showed positive for adeno. That does not make 100% of the dragons in the US positive, it only makes ALL the babies from one set of parents positive.
I know another lab that checked someone who had babies dying and found -0- out of 37 tested for adenovirus. The babies had an Acinetobacter baumannii bacteria that they had picked up from the breeder's son, he had just returned from Iraq. That also does not make -0-% of the dragons in the US negative. See the difference?
It does not cost that much, babies should not and do not have to be tested once any breeder has their adults tested and there is no chance of producing infected babies..... that is not that expensive or hard for most breeders to do.... most have under 12 breeders, many much less..... so a few hundred for test and then ALL babies are clear they produce, I know at least 2 dozen breeders that have clear colonies... all Wendy's adults are clear now, Mine are clear and I know many others are from NY, NJ, PA, NC, FL SC, GA, CA, LA, TX, AR, NM, MA, ME, MO, MI, OR, WA, UT and OK... it is NOT that common as most babies that get infected die young or it is diagnosed, never bred and reproduce, ones that do reach breeding age, often die from the breeding or egg laying due to that stress.
