Historically, reptiles have been used as bioindicators of environmental contaminants and, currently, reptiles have the potential to elucidate the mechanisms of a newly described group of environmental contaminants--endocrine disrupters. Reptiles are particularly good models for studying endocrine altering compounds due to the fact that different species of reptiles have varying modes of gender ...

BACKGROUND This study investigates Salmonella spp. isolated from privately kept reptiles and from environmental samples such as bedding materials or water from the floor of the enclosures (terraria). It also compares isolation of Salmonella using Modified Semisolid Rappaport-Vassiliadis (MSRV) medium or selective enrichment in Rappaport-Vassiliadis-Soya (RVS) pepton broth. Cloacal swabs or swab...

In the central area of Argentina, the epidemiological and molecular characteristics of Chlamydophila pneumoniae infections in reptiles are still unknown. A nested polymerase chain reaction of the rpoB gene was used to detect C. pneumoniae in cloacal swab samples from 19 reptiles at a recreational area. Eleven (57.89%) reptiles were positive; the sequencing and phylogenetic analysis confirmed th...

Reptiles are an important group of cold blooded vertebrates that have significant ecological and evolutionary significance. Species identification of reptiles is generally based on morphological characters. With the advancement of modern molecular techniques, the concept of DNA barcoding has gained global attention. Here we discuss the concept of DNA barcoding and its role in identification, mo...

The variety of interactions between human cultures and herpetofauna is the subject matter of Ethnoherpetology, a subdivision of Ethnozoology. In the semi-arid region of Brazil, many reptiles interact with human communities because of their utility or because of the risks they represent. These interactions have obvious implications for the conservation of reptiles from this region. In this conte...