It was confirmed that imported breeding snakes that visited a veterinary hospital in Fukuoka City developed "snake fungal disease".Not only is this bacterium confirmed for the first time in Japan, but it is also the first time in Asia, and there are concerns about future epidemics.
Snake fungal disease is a fungal disease caused by the mold Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola (O. ophiodiicola), which was first reported in captive snakes in North America in 1986.It is a serious skin infection, and since 2008, it has been confirmed not only in captivity but also in wild snakes, and in 2015, it was reported in almost all wild species of snakes in the eastern United States.
It is an emerging infectious disease that has been confirmed to spread to more than 30 types of snakes around the world, such as being detected in captive snakes in the United Kingdom, Germany, and Australia, but there have been no reports of infection in Asia to date. That is.
The case reported this time in Japan is one imported breeding snake examined by a veterinary hospital in Fukuoka City from April 2019 to October 4.Skin lesions such as blisters, pustules, and crusts were seen, and the same symptoms appeared one after another in the 2019 snakes that were kept together.Eventually, 10 out of 1 died, and 11 survived by administration of antifungal drugs, etc., but the pathological morphology and genes were observed using dead snake samples at the National Science Museum and Okayama University of Science. As a result of analysis and pathological examination, it was confirmed that the disease was snake fungal disease caused by O. ophiodiicola.
Although all 12 snakes were captive and foreign snakes, 51 species of wild snakes endemic to Japan also inhabit Japan.It is necessary to pay attention to future impact assessment and potential domestic distribution so that this pathogen, which threatens the conservation of various snake species in various parts of Europe and the United States, does not spread to wild snakes in Japan.
