The rapid rise in the number of pet chelonians and their illegal trade can modify the ecology, involving exotic pets, humans, and microbiological agents. Therefore, different epidemiological situations and the related risk to introduce and spread infectious diseases, especially zoonotic agents, have to be considered. The aim of this study was to investigate the microbiological and parasitologic...

Harvesting pressure on Asian freshwater turtles is severe, and dramatic population declines of these turtles are being driven by unsustainable collection for food markets, pet trade, and traditional Chinese medicine. Populations of big-headed turtle (Platysternon megacephalum) have declined substantially across its distribution, particularly in China, because of overcollection. To understand th...

The green turtle (Chelonia mydas) has been a species of global concern for decades. As an attempt to study health status of nesting green turtles, Blood biochemistry and hematological values were obtained from 18 clinically normal, nesting female green sea turtles on the northern coast of the sea of Oman. Mean curved carapace length (CCL) was 111±4 cm with a range of 103—122 cm. Barnacles were ...

The usage of essential oils as antimicrobial agents is gaining attention. Besides, pet turtles were known to harbor a range of pathogenic bacteria while the turtle keeping is a growing trend worldwide.The current study examined the antimicrobial activity of lemon grass oil (LGO) against seven species of Gram negative bacteria namely; Aeromonas hydrophila, A. caviae, Citrobacter freundii, Salmon...

INTRODUCTION Salmonellosis is an important public health problem. Turtles are increasingly involved in the role of transmitters of this infection to humans. METHODS Salmonella cases are reported to the local Surveillance Agency where interviews are carried out to address possible exposures. Molecular epidemiology techniques were used to identify species. RESULTS In this article we report tw...

The occurrence of Mycobacterium species in clinically healthy pet reptiles was studied in Italy during the period 2004-2006. The feces samples of 223 animals were examined bacteriologically. Thirty-seven strains were isolated, in particular from 13/18 (72.2%) ophidians, 13/134 (9.7%) saurians and 11/71 (15.5%) chelonians. The isolates were classified, after HPLC analysis of bromophenacyl esters...

Biological invasions are among the major global causes of biodiversity loss. The pet trade is main pathway by which reptiles introduced into new environments. After EU import ban on pond slider (Trachemys scripta), other species pet-traded freshwater turtles more often reported from wild. Here we report first and genetically verified record Chinese soft-shelled turtle (Pelodiscus sinensis) east...

Exotic reptiles originating from the wild can be carriers of many different pathogens and some of them can infect humans. Reptiles imported into Slovenia from 2000 to 2005, specimens of native species taken from the wild and captive bred species were investigated. A total of 949 reptiles (55 snakes, 331 lizards and 563 turtles), belonging to 68 different species, were examined for the presence ...