Allender, M. C., Ravesi, M. J., Haynes, E., Ospina, E., Petersen, C., Phillips, C. A., & Lovich, R. (2020). Ophidiomycosis, an emerging fungal disease of snakes: Targeted surveillance on military lands and detection in the western US and Puerto Rico. PloS One, 15(10), e0240415.

Study Highlights:

Ophidiomycosis (formerly referred to as Snake Fungal Disease, SFD), an emergent disease on the North American landscape caused by the fungus Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola, poses a threat to snake population health and stability.

657 individual snakes were tested representing 58 species in 31 states from 56 military bases in the continental US and Puerto Rico for O. ophiodiicola. 

Ophidiomyces ophiodiicola DNA was detected in samples from 113 snakes for a prevalence of 17.2% representing 25 species from 19 states/territories, including the first reports of the pathogen in snakes in Idaho, Oklahoma, and Puerto Rico.

Snakes from Georgia, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, and Virginia all had greater odds of ophidiomycosis diagnosis, while snakes from Idaho were less likely to be diagnosed with ophidiomycosis.

The results of this survey indicate that this pathogen is endemic in the eastern US and identified new sites that could represent emergence or improved detection of endemic sites.

The direct mortality of snakes with ophidiomycosis is unknown from this study, but the presence of numerous individuals with clinical disease warrants further investigation and possible conservation action.

This research was also featured in a news story by The Wildlife Society: Fungal disease affects snakes in 19 states and Puerto Rico.