Two months ago a major shipment of pythons arrived from Africa, resulting in a great number of inexpensive pythons in pet stores  Anyone interested in buying a python, however, should beware: many pythons hatched in Africa are afflicted with a deadly liver disease  Although a few pythons recently hatched in North America have this disease, a much greater proportion of African-hatched pythons have it
The disease is difficult to detect in its early stages, and all pythons die within six months of contracting the disease
The pythons are inexpensively priced because many of them suffer from the liver disease.