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A retrospective study was conducted to investigate the presence of ferlavirus, ball python nidovirus and bacteria in 32 tracheobronchial lavages from ball pythons raised in captivity and affected by respiratory disease. A touchdown reverse transcription polymerase reaction (RT-PCR) was performed to detect ball python nidovirus RNA targeting a 260-bp portion of the ORF1a gene, while a nested RT-PCR was applied to identify RNA targeting the 518-bp ferlavirus partial L gene. RT-PCR positive products were submitted for Sanger’s sequencing and phylogeny reconstruction. Bacteriological examinations were performed to diagnose a possible bacterial involvement. BLAST analysis revealed that the nucleotide sequences of the six (18.8%) RT-PCR positive amplicons were 90–97% identical to the partial sequence of the ORF1a gene of the recently described ball python nidovirus. All tested snakes were negative for …