72 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1958 
and improved general condition. The technical aspects of the above 
diets have been published by the Zoological Society of Philadelphia. 
A new herbivorous diet was developed by the animal department 
staff with gratifying results. 
The feed for the reptile division is still being obtained from various 
governmental institutions in the area. Bacteriological isolations 
from several large snakes lost during the past year indicated that 
feed rodents may be carriers of reptilian pathogens. Specifically, 
several isolations of Paracolobactrum arizonae were made from me- 
dium-sized boas and pythons whose only source of infection could 
have been feed rats. This particular organism is nonpathogenic to 
rodents, but it will produce lesions in cold-blooded animals such as 
lizards and snakes. At the present time the pathogenicity of this 
particular organism is being investigated. At this writing isolations 
of this organism have been made from a regal python, an African 
python, a western diamondback rattlesnake, and the drain of the 
cage inhabited by the first two snakes. This problem happens to 
be the most interesting of several in the reptile division. Others are 
the high percentage of granulomatous lesions found in the organs 
of reptiles and the persistent remissions and exacerbations of the 
necrotizing lesions commonly known as “mouth rot.” 
In January 1958, the king cobra succumbed after less than a year 
and a half in the collection. At the time of death this individual 
had attained a length of 11 feet 914 inches and a weight of 144% 
pounds. The snake had been off its feed for almost 3 months, and 
no amount of coaxing could entice it to eat. Bacteriological cultures 
were negative for pathogens, but microscopic sections revealed gran- 
ulomatous lesions in many internal organs. Grossly these lesions 
showed as white-spotted areas, especially noticeable in the liver. The 
small intestine contained many cestodes which seemed to be causing 
the snake no apparent distress. 
One Salmonella typhimurium was isolated from a 9-foot regal 
python with ulcerative and necrotic enteritis. It was interesting to 
note that this individual was taken from the same cage inhabited by 
those snakes from which two of the aforementioned arizonae isolations 
were made. From at least one snake in this same cage an isolation of 
Mycobacterium thamnopheos has been made. Within a period of less 
than 2 months 2 regal pythons, 1 African python, 2 anacondas, and 
2 emperor boas were lost from this cage. 
In November 1957, 8 quokkas (Setonix brachyurus) were received 
from Perth, Australia, all of which seemed to be in good condition. 
However, a week after their arrival, one quokka was found dead 
(fighting). From this necropsy these animals were found to be har- 
boring large numbers of Austrostrongylus minutus and smaller num- 
