Muñoz-Pérez Juan Pablo, Lewbart Gregory A, Hirschfeld Maximilian, Alarcón-Ruales Daniela, Denkinger Judith, Castañeda Jason Guillermo, García Juan, Lohmann Kenneth J
Galapagos Science Center, University San Francisco de Quito, Puerto Baquerizo Moreno, Galapagos, Ecuador.
College of Veterinary Medicine, North Carolina State University, 1060 William Moore Drive, Raleigh, NC 27601, USA.
Conserv Physiol. 2017 May 10;5(1):cox028. doi: 10.1093/conphys/cox028. eCollection 2017.
The hawksbill turtle, , is a marine chelonian with a circum-global distribution, but the species is critically endangered and has nearly vanished from the eastern Pacific. Although reference blood parameter intervals have been published for many chelonian species and populations, including nesting Atlantic hawksbills, no such baseline biochemical and blood gas values have been reported for wild Pacific hawksbill turtles. Blood samples were drawn from eight hawksbill turtles captured in near shore foraging locations within the Galápagos archipelago over a period of four sequential years; three of these turtles were recaptured and sampled on multiple occasions. Of the eight sea turtles sampled, five were immature and of unknown sex, and the other three were females. A portable blood analyzer was used to obtain near immediate field results for a suite of blood gas and chemistry parameters. Values affected by temperature were corrected in two ways: (i) with standard formulas and (ii) with auto-corrections made by the portable analyzer. A bench top blood chemistry analyzer was used to measure a series of biochemistry parameters from plasma. Standard laboratory haematology techniques were employed for red and white blood cell counts and to determine haematocrit manually, which was compared to the haematocrit values generated by the portable analyzer. The values reported in this study provide reference data that may be useful in comparisons among populations and in detecting changes in health status among Galápagos sea turtles. The findings might also be helpful in future efforts to demonstrate associations between specific biochemical parameters and disease or environmental disasters.
玳瑁是一种分布于全球的海洋龟类，但该物种已极度濒危，在东太平洋地区几乎绝迹。尽管已经公布了许多龟类物种和种群的参考血液参数区间，包括筑巢的大西洋玳瑁，但尚未有野生太平洋玳瑁的此类基线生化和血气值的报道。在连续四年的时间里，从加拉帕戈斯群岛近岸觅食地点捕获的八只玳瑁身上采集了血样；其中三只海龟被多次重新捕获并采样。在采样的八只海龟中，五只未成熟且性别未知，另外三只为雌性。使用便携式血液分析仪立即获得了一组血气和化学参数的现场结果。受温度影响的值通过两种方式进行校正：（i）使用标准公式，（ii）通过便携式分析仪进行自动校正。使用台式血液化学分析仪测量血浆中的一系列生化参数。采用标准实验室血液学技术进行红细胞和白细胞计数，并手动测定血细胞比容，将其与便携式分析仪生成的血细胞比容值进行比较。本研究报告的值提供了参考数据，可能有助于不同种群之间的比较以及检测加拉帕戈斯海龟健康状况的变化。这些发现也可能有助于未来证明特定生化参数与疾病或环境灾难之间关联的努力。
