The prevalence of Salmonella and Arizona organisms in the reptile collection at the National Zoological Park was investigated. Culture of specimens from 311 reptiles, while live or at necropsy, yielded yielded 117 positive results, for an overall infection rate of 37%. Snakes had the highest rate, 55% (69 of 125); lizards had an intermediate rate, 36% (46 of 129); and turtles and tortoises had ...

BACKGROUND Secondary adaptation to aquatic life occurred independently in several amniote lineages, including reptiles during the Mesozoic and mammals during the Cenozoic. These evolutionary shifts to aquatic environments imply major morphological modifications, especially of the feeding apparatus. Mesozoic (250-65 Myr) marine reptiles, such as ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, mosasaurid squamates, c...

Formalinized specimens used in mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) studies have shown shortcomings with respect to efficacy of DNA isolation and subsequent PCR amplification. In order to pinpoint the source of some of the problems with formalinized tissues in reptiles, we compared the efficacy of isolation and amplification of mtDNA from two different snake species Micrurus fulvius and Lampropeltis trian...

Reptiles can harbor pathogenic microorganisms asymptomatically and serve as potential reservoirs of infection for humans, domestic animals, and other reptiles. Infectious diseases are also problematic for free-ranging reptile populations and are an important consideration in reptile reintroduction and translocation projects. There have been limited serologic studies of free-ranging reptiles for...

The first study on ticks on reptiles of Sri Lanka dates back to Seneviratna (1965) who reported ticks from five reptiles. Later studies were either limited to one reptile (Fernando & Fernando 2012), or captive animals in zoos (Fernando & Randeniaya 2009) and household pets (Nathanael et al. 2004). According to the current classification (Guglielmone et al. 2010), all the tick species previously...

Reptiles are among the most threatened vertebrates worldwide. Habitat loss and fragmentation, human overexploitation, introduced invasive species, emerging diseases, environmental pollution global warming, severely increase risk of extinction population decline this taxon. A key strategy for protecting reptiles’ biodiversity has been creation maintenance protected areas. The focus work will be ...