Causes of mortality in green turtles from Hawaii and the insular Pacific exclusive of fibropapillomatosis

Diseases of Aquatic Organisms

George H. Balazs¹  Tammy M. Summers¹  Thierry M. Work¹  Alden P. Tagarino¹  Jessy R. Hapdei¹ 

关键词: Green turtle;    Chelonia mydas;    Mortality;    Pathology;    Trauma;    Infectious disease;    Nutrition;    Pacific;   

DOI  :  10.3354/dao02890

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Inter-Research

【 摘 要 】

ABSTRACT: Fibropapillomatosis (FP) comprises a majority of green turtle stranding in Hawaii; however, green turtles in the Pacific are also susceptible to non-FP related causes of death. We present here necropsy findings from 230 free-ranging green turtles originating from Hawaii, the Mariana archipelago, Palmyra Atoll, American Samoa, and Johnston Atoll that died from non-FP related causes. Most turtles died from fishing-induced or boat strike trauma followed by infectious/inflammatory diseases, nutritional problems (mainly cachexia), and an array of physiologic problems. Infectious/inflammatory problems included bacterial diseases of the lungs, eyes, liver or intestines, spirorchid fluke infection, or polyarthritis of unknown origin. Likelihood of a successful diagnosis of cause of death was a function of post-mortem decomposition. Fibropapillomatosis was not seen in turtles submitted from outside Hawaii. The preponderance of anthropogenic causes of mortality offers some management opportunities to mitigate causes of death in these animals by, for example, implementing measures to decrease boating and fishing interactions.

【 授权许可】

Unknown