Kay A. Backues, DVM, Dipl ACZM1, Rebecca Bloch, DVM1, Day Ligon2

A group of 270 adult Alligator Snapping Turtles (AST) were confiscated from a commercial breeder and held at an Arkansas State Hatchery for one year. In conjunction with an already established breeding and head start program at Tishomingo National Fish Hatchery, these confiscated animals were assessed for their overall health and suitability to augment the release population. All of the animals in the confiscated population were examined to determine age, size, and sex, and were individually marked for future identification. Twenty-three animals were additionally sampled for external parasites, and blood was collected for routine complete blood count, serum chemistry analysis, hemoparasite load, and serum titers for chelonian herpesvirus. Finally, one adult male AST with a severe acute facial injury sustained from another animal was humanely euthanized for gross and histologic exam of tissues. The confiscated population of adult ASTs appeared to be in good condition and had only moderate ecto- and hemoparasite loads despite the high density of animals that had been maintained by the private owner and hatchery during their captivity. The most commonly seen abnormalities were presumed bite wounds from conspecifics and secondary infection of these injuries. Most of these injuries were not predicted to impact the individual animal’s ability to survive in the wild once released, or to negatively affect native turtles. The repatriation of these breeding sized animals should more quickly lead to viable breeding populations in Oklahoma streams where they were formerly extirpated. The ability to examine and obtain basic health parameters on a group of formerly captive animals is an important step in their assessment for suitability for reintroduction to prevent the transmission of disease into a wild population.
Macrochelys Session: Oral

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