RT-PCR diagnosis followed by sequence characterization of paramyxoviruses in clinical samples from snakes reveals concurrent infections within populations and/or individuals

Paramyxoviruses (PMV) are important causes of disease in snakes in both private and zoologic collections and have been described in many different parts of the world. We have used the described L-gene nested RT-PCR (Ahne et al., 1999) as a diagnostic tool for the detection and characterization of PMV in clinical field samples from 102 snakes from Germany and Hungary. Fifty of the tested 203 samples were positive in the RT-PCR. 38 organs or swab samples from 25 snakes were selected for sequencing. They resulted in 13 different partial L-gene sequences, eight of which were identical to earlier characterized isolates, while five were new unique sequences, but also closely related to the earlier described PMV sequences. The comparison of sequences obtained from tissues from the same animal or from different animals from the same collection indicates that snakes can be infected with several different PMV during one outbreak. This is the first report of concurrent infection in a single snake or group of snakes with several distinct PMV.