The pine-snake sores that appearances could not diagnose

An old observation gains a laboratory question

Long-term pine-snake researchers had recorded what they called hibernation sores: damaged, raised or discolored scales noticed after winter. Their 2024 paper revisited the assumption that these were minor abrasions. The team swabbed several body locations and compared visible lesions with laboratory tests for Ophidiomyces ophidiicola, the fungus associated with snake fungal disease. Burger and colleagues, lesions and investigator perceptions (2024).

Severity was not a reliable shortcut

Swabbing sores identified positive snakes more effectively than sampling the belly alone. Investigators’ perceptions of how severe a sore looked did not reliably track its test result. Some animals without an obvious diagnostic appearance still needed testing. The study therefore examined the observer as well as the animal. Burger and colleagues, lesions and investigator perceptions (2024).

Detection and consequence remain separate

The authors recommended clear distinctions between visible signs and a positive molecular test, including sampling apparently unaffected snakes. Their results do not turn every abrasion into fungal disease or prove that every positive snake will die. They show why a field description and a laboratory detection answer different questions about an animal’s condition. Burger and colleagues, lesions and investigator perceptions (2024).

The longer series did not show a steady rise

A 2025 follow-up compared molecular detections across 2018–2023 and across sampled body sites. A snake counted as positive when any sampled site tested positive. Reported prevalence varied from 47 percent in 2018 to 100 percent in 2022, then fell to 46 percent in 2023. Those annual samples therefore did not trace a simple, uninterrupted increase. Burger and colleagues, annual and sampling-site variation (2025).

Visible lesions did not decline as sharply as fungal detections in 2023. Males had more lesions than females, yet similar positivity, while head swabs yielded the lowest detection rates. The results reinforce the distinction between appearance, sampling location and laboratory detection. Percentages concern examined snakes in this research program; they are not a census of every pine snake or measurements of disease-caused mortality. Burger and colleagues, annual and sampling-site variation (2025).