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Paranannizziopsis spp. associated with skin lesions in wild snakes in North America and development of a real-time PCR assay for rapid detection of the fungus in clinical samples

Metadata Updated: July 6, 2024

The emergence of ophidiomycosis (or snake fungal disease) in snakes has prompted increased awareness of the potential impacts of fungal infections on wild reptile populations. Yet, aside from Ophidiomyces ophidiicola, little is known about other mycoses affecting wild reptiles. The closely related genus Paranannizziopsis has been associated with dermatomycosis in snakes and tuataras in captive collections and P. australasiensis was recently identified as the cause of skin infections in non-native wild panther chameleons (Furcifer pardalis) in Florida, USA. Here we describe five cases of Paranannizziopsis spp. associated with skin lesions in wild snakes in North America and one additional case from a captive snake from Connecticut, USA. In addition to demonstrating that wild Nearctic snakes can serve as a host for these fungi, we also provide evidence that the genus Paranannizziopsis is widespread in wild snakes, with cases being identified in Louisiana (USA), Minnesota (USA), Virginia (USA), and British Columbia (Canada). Phylogenetic analyses conducted on multiple loci of the fungal strains we isolated identified P. australasiensis in Louisiana and Virginia; the remaining strains from Minnesota and British Columbia did not cluster with any of the described species of Paranannizziopsis, although the strains from British Columbia appear to represent a single lineage. Finally, we designed a pan-Paranannizziopsis real-time PCR assay targeting the internal transcribed spacer region 2. This assay successfully detected DNA of all described species of Paranannizziopsis and the two potentially novel taxa isolated in this study and did not cross-react with closely related fungi or other fungi commonly found on the skin of snakes. The assay was 100% sensitive and specific when screening clinical (skin tissue or skin swab) samples, although full determination of the assay’s performance will require additional follow up due to the small number of clinical samples (n=14 from 11 snakes) available for testing in our study. Nonetheless, the PCR assay will provide an important tool in further investigating the prevalence, distribution, and host range of Paranannizziopsis spp. and facilitate more rapid diagnosis of Paranannizziopsis spp. infections which are otherwise difficult to differentiate from other dermatomycoses.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date July 19, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date July 19, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
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Identifier USGS:6499ac2ad34ef77fcb02b0cf
Data Last Modified 20230706
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://datainventory.doi.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 8e7088f2-4b0b-4ca8-9806-dd2c9ba8517e
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -178.21,18.92,-44.2969,83.3595
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 991aaa7a50eb4dc0f18da4b2845b1d6661859e0896ce02c1fb1231820b383d2c
Source Schema Version 1.1
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