Meeting Abstract
53.6 Sunday, Jan. 5 14:45 To truck turtles or not to truck turtles: Assessing potential effects of transport stress on endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtles HUNT, K.E.*; INNIS, C.J.; MERIGO, C.; BURGESS, E.; New England Aquarium, Boston MA; New England Aquarium, Boston MA; New England Aquarium, Boston MA; New England Aquarium, Boston MA huntk@neaq.org
Sea turtle rehabilitation clinics must occasionally transport sea turtles long distances, e.g. to release animals at certain beaches, but there is little information on the possible effects of transport stress on sea turtles. To assess whether transport stress is a clinically relevant concern, we obtained pre-transport and post-transport plasma samples from 73 juvenile Kemp’s ridley sea turtles (Lepidochelys kempii) that were transported for 4h, 7h, 13h, or 24h from a sea turtle clinic to various sites for release to sea. To control for effects of handling and time of day, a subset of turtles were also studied on “control days”, e.g. with two samples taken to mimic pre-transport and post-transport handling but with no transportation. Plasma samples were analyzed for corticosterone, pH, pCO2, pO2, sodium, potassium, ionized calcium, lactate, glucose, white blood cell count (WBC) and heterophil/lymphocyte (H/L) ratio. Mean corticosterone, glucose, WBC and H/L ratio all rose significantly after transportation, and also showed milder elevations on control days (e.g., probable effect of handling). Corticosterone elevations were only significant during the longest (24h) transport event, during which mean corticosterone rose 5x above baseline. Glucose elevations were strongly significant for all transport durations, though the elevated glucose usually remained within clinically normal bounds. WBC and H/L ratio both showed statistically significant, though clinically mild, effects of handling and of transport. Most other measures showed minimal changes. Generally, this species appears only mildly affected by transport stress, but transports approaching 24h duration may have more pronounced effects.
