Seventeen serum chemistry analyses were performed on blood collected from captive diamond-backed water snakes. Means, standard deviations, and ranges were calculated for each assay. There was no correlation between the chemistry values and sex or size. The reported values for sodium, potassium, glucose, and total protein fell within the ranges found in the present study, but the values for chloride and blood urea nitrogen were higher, and calcium, bicarbonate, and osmolality were lower. Some snakes had unexpectedly very low serum glucose values which could not be explained by technique or methodology. There was a wide range in enzyme measurements which could be partly due to handling prior to death.

Several snake tissue samples and one set of snake eggs were collected and analyzed for 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin. The isomer-specific analysis was performed using fused silica GC combined with atmospheric pressure ionization MS. The results ranged from a low of 38 parts-per-trillion (ppt) to high levels over 500 ppt.

UNILOCULAR hydatid disease is caused by the larval stage of the canine intestinal tapeworm,Echinococcus granulosus. The disease is usually found as a solitary, fluid-filled bladder type of cyst situated in the liver, although localization may occur in other organs, especially the lungs. Such a cyst can grow and become large enough to cause a variety of clinical signs related, in part, to the pressure exerted by the cyst. Humans usually obtain this infection by ingesting theEchinococcusova that have been passed with the feces of dogs. Sheep are excellent intermediate hosts forE granulosus, and the sheep dog that has been fed the entrails of infected animals has been implicated as an important source of human infections. The majority of medical references published in the United States consider locally acquired hydatid disease to be uncommon in humans in the 48 contiguous states, with the infection most likely to