Inclusion body disease in a Corallus hortulanus

Abstract

An adult male Amazon tree boa ( Corallus hortulanus ) from the Zoo-Botanical Foundation (Belo Horizonte, Brazil) died after a period of apathy and anorexia. Cachexi a was the only significant gross finding. Numerous eosinophilic intracytoplasmic inclusion bodies were found in the liver, lungs, heart, testes, kidneys, and adipose tissue, compatible with the Inclusion Body Disease. The snake also had an u ndifferentiated metastatic sarcoma. In order to fur ther characterize the inclusion bodies found in this case, transmission e lectronic microscopy was performed. Inclusion Body Disease affects boid snakes, causing regurgitation, anorexia and neurolo gical signs that eventually lead to death. This is a challenging disease since its etiology, pathogenesis, and epidemiology are unknown, and therefore treatment is not effecti ve. This is the first report of Inclusion Body Disease in boid snake in B razil.