Free-ranging sea turtle health

Abstract

Assessing the health of free-ranging sea turtles has become increasingly important as evidence grows that environmental and animal health are intrinsically linked and sea turtle numbers continue to decline. Dr. George’s Chapter 14 of The Biology of Sea Turtles, Volume I (George 1997) has an excellent review of the known nutritional anomalies, diseases, parasites, and environmental health problems affecting sea turtles at the time. Dr. Herbst’s and Professor Jacobson’s Chapter 15 of Volume II (Herbst and Jacobson 2003) also has an excellent comprehensive review of the systematic approaches and pitfalls to conducting a sea turtle disease investigation as at the turn of the new millennium. Since then, there have been advances in our understanding of the ecology and pathogenesis of certain diseases, such as fibropapillomatosis, as well as the development of more sophisticated and standardized tools to assess the health of wild and captive turtles. Further, in this field of veterinary conservation medicine, there has been a movement toward Dr. Schwabe’s 1960s principle of One Medicine (Schwabe 1969), with the proposal that sea turtles are sentinel indicators of environmental health (Aguirre and Lutz 2004). Now known as One World One Health One Medicine, this concept, defined by the American Veterinary Medical Association as “the collaborative effort of multiple disciplines-working locally, nationally, and globally-to attain optimal health for people, animals and our environment” (http://www.avma. org/onehealth/responding.asp), appears to well suit the objectives and needs of a free-ranging sea turtle disease investigation.