Meeting Abstract

P3.36  Saturday, Jan. 5  Salmonella Infections in Hatchling Milk Snakes (Lampropeltis triangulum): Testing the Hypothesis That Hatchling Snakes Acquire Salmonella From Their Initial Meals of Mice. SPECKMAN, S.C.; ZALISKO, E.J.; SCRIBNER, Z.A.*; REID, D.L.; Blackburn College, Carlinville, Illinois; Blackburn College, Carlinville, Illinois; Blackburn College, Carlinville, Illinois; Blackburn College, Carlinville, Illinois ezali@blackburn.edu

A colony (N=23) of milk snakes (Lampropeltis triangulum) were hatched in Blackburn College laboratories from captive bred individuals and tested for the presence of Salmonella once before feeding and successively over a 32-33 week period after the ingestion of their initial meals. The hypothesis that hatchling snakes acquire Salmonella during the ingestion of their initial meals of mice was supported by the results. A pre-feeding test was conducted for each snake within eight days of hatching. The first post-feeding test for each snake occurred 8-9 weeks following the pre-feeding test and then every 8 weeks thereafter, for a total of five tests. Results revealed an initially low incidence of infection (9%) between hatching and ingestion of the initial meals, followed by increases to 33% (8-9 weeks after first feeding) and 39% (16-17 weeks after first feeding). Positive tests for Salmonella declined at 24-25 and 32-33 weeks post-feeding to 27% and 13% respectively. All animals that were Salmonella positive first became infected within 17 weeks post-hatching. Snakes were maintained separately on a pine chip substrate changed weekly or more frequently when feces were detected. Animals were offered previously frozen pinky mice every 3-4 days. Samples were taken by swabbing the cloacal region. All positive tests for Salmonella species were verified by API20 E test strips.