Coccidioidomycosis in a Sonoran gopher snake, Pituophis melanoleucus affinis

Coccidioides immitis was isolated from lesions in the lung of a Sonoran Gopher snake, Pituophis melanoleucus affinis. A lactophenol cotton blue mount of a fungal colony grown on Sabouraud's agar revealed coarse, branching, septate hyphae with alternating thick-walled arthroconidia. Histologically, the lung lesions contained spherical, non-budding, double-walled spherules in various stages of maturity. Some spherules contained endospores. Spherules were also present in granulomas associated with the thyroid and pancreas. A diagnosis was made of disseminated coccidioidomycosis, a condition not previously reported in a reptile.