New Delhi: Scientists have expressed concerns over a deadly fungal disease that is spreading rapidly among the snake species in the US and Europe, saying that it could take the form of a global threat.
Ophidiomyces ophidiodiicola, also called the snake fungal disease (SFD), is caused by a pathogenic fungus that grows on a variety of snakes. As per latest statistics, 23 species have fallen victim to it.
The snake begins to develop lesions on its body, which soon cover the entire length of the serpent. The infection can be cleared if the snake starts to shed its skin.
However, many animals die from it, either as a result of the infection itself or because behavior exhibited when the snakes are fighting the illness make them vulnerable to other forms of death.
At present, no snake species appear immune to the disease, raising the very real prospect of a global infection.
One of the first hints prodding at a break out came in 2006 in the US with reports saying that an isolated winter den of timber rattlesnakes in New Hampshire had suffered a population crash.
While the snakes showed signs of inbreeding, lesions on their body is what caught the scientists' attention.
Soon, similar cases popped up in Massachusetts and then Illinois. By 2009, Ophidiomyces ophidiodiicola, the fungus that causes the lesions, had been named. And it has been found to infect more than two dozen species of snakes in the country.
According to Yahoo UK, Frank Burbrink, lead author of a new study documenting the disease stated, "This really is the worst-case scenario. All snakes could become infected, or already are infected."
The researchers still have no idea why this fungus targets only snakes and not lizards. And although the fungus can spread from one snake to another, whether people or other animals can carry the disease and spread it around is still unclear. The disease could even lie dormant in environments before infecting a snake, the report said.
The fungus has been documented in Europe and the eastern half of the U.S. In addition, a wide variety of international snakes can get it in lab environments (although Burbrink notes that lab conditions are different than the wild.)
