Sendai virus question.

[Rachael]

At the start of the year (9 months ago exactly) we had what seems to have been Sendai virus.

Anyway then, we decided that we wouldn't take any more ratties in until all the current ratties (that had been here when we had the virus) were gone.

My question is, once the virus is gone - is that it gone for good? Could it be triggered again? Could some of the ratties I have at the moment be carriers for example?

 

[hopefloats]

I was asking the same thing.

On the rat and mouse gazette

the problem with this Sendai virus for all of these rodents is that, unlike the SDA virus of rats, these infected colonies continue to carry the disease. With SDA, which is a corona virus, rats shed the disease for about seven days and then the disease is gone. Sendai virus doesn't go away, so the carriers are always a danger for the uninfected.

to me that seems like they would be a danger to other rats that entered the house. I could not find anything else that backed this up though.

It is kinda scary because without any signs, you can infect your colony.

I am unsure if this is what we had last month but I am almost positive that it was Sendai that hit us. Which made me question what else is at risk from this.

 

[lilspaz68]

Actually no, there is no carriers of the virus...its very confusing to understand but basically when you have an infected rat, he could present with symptoms or seem perfectly healthy (the latent "carrier" state)...but the virus does shed from all infected rats and is gone. The rats are now immune to that strain of SV and will test for the antibodies for the rest of their life.

The virus dies off-host in 3 hours. If you quarantined and haven't continued the active infection by continuing to breed, or bringing in new uninfected rats constantly, it will die out from your current colony.

 

[hopefloats]

Now is that what that paragraph is saying? :laugh4:

 

[Rachael]

Thanks for the replies both of you
It's just that another thread on another forum has just made me start thinking it all through again. I'm not 100% sure it was Sendai, I don't know if the time length of it at all fits. We brought 2 babies home late December (19th or around that? would need to check) and then moved 5 groups of girls in together late January.... including the 2 baby girls. Febuary the 16th or just before that is when it started up. We lost one of the little babies , 2 of the older girls in the cage, one with a PT was quite sick with it but responded to strong meds, then we lost another younger girl. Not sure.... :/