Identification, Characterization, and In Vitro Culture of Highly Divergent Arenaviruses from Boa Constrictors and Annulated Tree Boas: Candidate Etiological Agents for Snake Inclusion Body Disease

Stenglein, Mark D.; Sanders, Chris; Kistler, Amy L.; Ruby, J. Graham; Franco, Jessica Y.; Reavill, Drury R.; Dunker, Freeland; DeRisi, Joseph L.

We do not know if snakes are the natural host of these viruses or if snakes are infected adventitiously, in a manner akin to the zoonotic transmission of rodent arenaviruses to humans. Likewise, it is unclear how the virus is transmitted. One possibility is that virus is transmitted from snake to snake by blood-feeding mites, infestations of which have anecdotally been associated with IBD outbreaks (1). Snakes eat rodents; thus, another possibility is that these viruses are transmitted when snakes eat infected mice or rats. This possibility is not unprecedented: "callitrichid hepatitis virus" was originally identified as the agent responsible for outbreaks of fatal hepatitis in captive marmosets and tamarins in zoos (47) . This virus was subsequently shown to be identical to LCMV, which was being transmitted to the zoo animals via infected mice that they were fed (48) (49) (50) . In contrast, the viruses identified here are highly divergent from Old and New World arenaviruses. Additional experiments to test the viruses' host range in cell lines and animals will help answer these questions.