Parasites of stranded Juvenile Green Turtles Chelonia mydas (Testudines: Cheloniidae) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

Authors

  • Débora Afonso Silva Rocha Universidade Santa Úrsula. 75 Fernando Ferrari Str. – Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
  • Victor Midlej Universidade Santa Úrsula. 75 Fernando Ferrari Str. – Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
  • Natalie Villar Freret-Meurer Universidade Santa Úrsula. 75 Fernando Ferrari Str. – Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil ,Animal Behavior and Conservation Laboratory. Universidade Santa Úrsula. 75 Fernando Ferrari Str. – Botafogo, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil

Keywords:

Chelonia mydas, sea turtles, gastrointestinal parasites

Abstract

Environmental pollution caused by human activities in marine ecosystems involve several contaminants that act as immunosuppressive agents to several species, favoring parasitic infections. Chelonia mydas is considered an endangered species whose populations are continually being reduced in size. Several factors contribute to this: overexploitation of eggs and adult females during nesting, capture of males and juveniles for food, habitat degradation, fungal and bacterial infections or gastrointestinal parasitic diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate the ecto and endoparasites of stranded green turtles in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. SIMBA database analysis reported a total of 1116  stranded green sea turtles, however only 109 carcasses were well preserved and only 53 of them were analyzed for parasite infection. Most of the samples (75%, n=40) tested positive for parasites and 64% (n=34) of them were composed of gastrointestinal parasites.. All the gastrointestinal parasites were represented by trematodes, but the most frequent one was Neoctagium travassosi, followed by Metacetabulum invaginatum and Deuterobaris intestinalis, suggesting those areas to present less anthropogenic changes, sheltering a variety of intermediate hosts.  There are few Brazilian coast data available due to the country's vast extension and unviable stranded animals carcasses. Therefore, this study contributes to parasitological analysis of C. mydas in Southeast region of Brazil.

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Published

2022-02-05

How to Cite

Rocha , D. A. S. ., Victor Midlej, & Natalie Villar Freret-Meurer. (2022). Parasites of stranded Juvenile Green Turtles Chelonia mydas (Testudines: Cheloniidae) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. International Journal of Natural Sciences: Current and Future Research Trends, 13(1), 1–10. Retrieved from https://ijnscfrtjournal.isrra.org/index.php/Natural_Sciences_Journal/article/view/1077

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Vol. 13 No. 1 (2022)

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