Hey Steve! Really excited about this. Your forum posts, social media comments, and podcast appearances are always much appreciated, especially considering how busy you've got to be between research, travel and upkeep of your own animals. It's a shame that the hobby side of keepers is so unaware of your work. Just know there's those of us that are very proud of what you're doing. Looking forward to hearing more about your ventures!
It is very good to see you back making videos, you inspired me to look into blood pythons. The last time I heard from you, you had a horrible accident from falling off a ladder. but I'm glad you're okay and I bet it was so neat to check out Emanuel EB Noah's place!!!!!!
Thankfully I was left with only a minor bit of brain damage which manifest as an inability to write down a spoken phone number or word spelled out to me out loud, but was definitely pretty sketch for a bit! Noah's is just the tip of the iceburg, I hope people enjoy what I'm able to share pulling back a bit more of the curtain on my experience in the reptile industry.
This is awesome, Steve. Seeing what you have accomplished is so motivating for me. I am very excited to see more of this kind of content. You are a wealth of knowledge!
Hey, good to see you back on UA-cam. Years ago you did a podcast with a certain group of people where you said there wasn't a good way to detect most nidovirus (serpentovirus) infections even while you all were using degenerate primers. The whole podcast was in response to a certain customer of that certain group of people receiving 5 snakes with the virus. That certain group, oddly enough, found themselves yet again in a scenario with a customer that purchased an animal with a different disease... Anyway, has anything changed in all these years? Any new methodology? What methods were used in the sampling of the free range burmese pythons in Florida? How are the short tails you said were non-clinical but had serpentovirus? Are you going to make some more serpentovirus content? Do you still have Bessette's notes that, iirc, you had created a database from?
The PVTF/DYTR rtPRC (but not qrtPCR) is the only test I trust to determine if any snake nidovirus is present- and I know this methodology despite being the best, still has limitations that are just baked into the cake of the technology (sensitivity and specificity) and biology (variable rates of shedding and sample collection/storage). This is the test I used for the burms, and is only offered by UF. I took a position at the UF lab, in part, to make this testing more available to hobbyists. I plan to pair this with my own private efforts here of public outreach on serpentovirus info, including a website to organize information for people, and educational videos simplifying some of this info. One of the first videos I plan to upload is a video of my defense, which basically summarizes the state of the field. Lots of nuance here. No virus vs. no disease? Perfect vs. good? Do I need to check for EVERY virus vs. a cheaper test that detects the most important ones? No one has any of these answers, but at least people can understand the questions they are actually answering vs. the ones they think they are answering in a test if given better info. I think the future will involve this treatment study I'm working on to hopefully release 2024. Although I have a few major things that make me nervous about any true "cure" and releasing an incomplete picture prematurely, I'm starting to feel pretty confident in saying there at least a path in managing these viruses to create a clinically healthy colony to the point where many commercial tests would have a hard time consistently detecting virus.
@@RepTillis Sounds pretty good. I can't wait to see what happens in the future. Let me know if I can subscribe to an RSS feed or something. If you need help with a website or similar also let me know. I am really interested in if there's something we can do faster and cheaper. I don't expect to be able to refit one of the instant tests similar to what was used during the pandemic, but what about LAMP primers? Could we do a combination of PCR and LAMP right at shows like Tinley, etc? Is it just a matter of teaching people to wash their hands? I was able to work with MiniPCR to detect genes (similar to RGI and based on the Ball Python Genetics Project) but I don't have the uh "braveness" to try that with crypto and BPNV.
Hey Steve! Really excited about this. Your forum posts, social media comments, and podcast appearances are always much appreciated, especially considering how busy you've got to be between research, travel and upkeep of your own animals. It's a shame that the hobby side of keepers is so unaware of your work. Just know there's those of us that are very proud of what you're doing. Looking forward to hearing more about your ventures!
It is very good to see you back making videos, you inspired me to look into blood pythons. The last time I heard from you, you had a horrible accident from falling off a ladder. but I'm glad you're okay and I bet it was so neat to check out Emanuel EB Noah's place!!!!!!
Thankfully I was left with only a minor bit of brain damage which manifest as an inability to write down a spoken phone number or word spelled out to me out loud, but was definitely pretty sketch for a bit! Noah's is just the tip of the iceburg, I hope people enjoy what I'm able to share pulling back a bit more of the curtain on my experience in the reptile industry.
This is awesome, Steve. Seeing what you have accomplished is so motivating for me. I am very excited to see more of this kind of content. You are a wealth of knowledge!
Very glad that I found your channel and really looking forward to seeing the content.
Looking forward to it, Steve.
Really looking forward to this!
Hey, good to see you back on UA-cam.
Years ago you did a podcast with a certain group of people where you said there wasn't a good way to detect most nidovirus (serpentovirus) infections even while you all were using degenerate primers. The whole podcast was in response to a certain customer of that certain group of people receiving 5 snakes with the virus. That certain group, oddly enough, found themselves yet again in a scenario with a customer that purchased an animal with a different disease... Anyway, has anything changed in all these years? Any new methodology? What methods were used in the sampling of the free range burmese pythons in Florida? How are the short tails you said were non-clinical but had serpentovirus? Are you going to make some more serpentovirus content?
Do you still have Bessette's notes that, iirc, you had created a database from?
The PVTF/DYTR rtPRC (but not qrtPCR) is the only test I trust to determine if any snake nidovirus is present- and I know this methodology despite being the best, still has limitations that are just baked into the cake of the technology (sensitivity and specificity) and biology (variable rates of shedding and sample collection/storage). This is the test I used for the burms, and is only offered by UF. I took a position at the UF lab, in part, to make this testing more available to hobbyists. I plan to pair this with my own private efforts here of public outreach on serpentovirus info, including a website to organize information for people, and educational videos simplifying some of this info. One of the first videos I plan to upload is a video of my defense, which basically summarizes the state of the field.
Lots of nuance here. No virus vs. no disease? Perfect vs. good? Do I need to check for EVERY virus vs. a cheaper test that detects the most important ones? No one has any of these answers, but at least people can understand the questions they are actually answering vs. the ones they think they are answering in a test if given better info.
I think the future will involve this treatment study I'm working on to hopefully release 2024. Although I have a few major things that make me nervous about any true "cure" and releasing an incomplete picture prematurely, I'm starting to feel pretty confident in saying there at least a path in managing these viruses to create a clinically healthy colony to the point where many commercial tests would have a hard time consistently detecting virus.
@@RepTillis Sounds pretty good. I can't wait to see what happens in the future. Let me know if I can subscribe to an RSS feed or something. If you need help with a website or similar also let me know.
I am really interested in if there's something we can do faster and cheaper. I don't expect to be able to refit one of the instant tests similar to what was used during the pandemic, but what about LAMP primers? Could we do a combination of PCR and LAMP right at shows like Tinley, etc? Is it just a matter of teaching people to wash their hands?
I was able to work with MiniPCR to detect genes (similar to RGI and based on the Ball Python Genetics Project) but I don't have the uh "braveness" to try that with crypto and BPNV.
Togo is supposed to have bitis nasicornis with lots of bright red in it’s pattern