Helminth Infection of the Loggerhead Sea Turtle <i>Caretta caretta</i> along the Coasts of Sicily and the North West Adriatic Sea

We provide new data on the presence of helminth parasites in 64 individual loggerhead sea turtles <i>Caretta caretta</i> stranded along the coasts of Sicily and the northwest Adriatic Sea between June 2014 and August 2016. The necropsy examination revealed 31 individuals (48.4%) positive...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Antonino Gentile, Tullia Amato, Andrea Gustinelli, Maria Letizia Fioravanti, Delia Gambino, Vincenzo Randazzo, Giulia Caracappa, Domenico Vicari, Marco Arculeo
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: MDPI AG 2021-05-01
Series:Animals
Subjects:
Online Access:https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/11/5/1408
Description
Summary:We provide new data on the presence of helminth parasites in 64 individual loggerhead sea turtles <i>Caretta caretta</i> stranded along the coasts of Sicily and the northwest Adriatic Sea between June 2014 and August 2016. The necropsy examination revealed 31 individuals (48.4%) positive for endoparasites, showing a greater prevalence of trematodes than nematodes. In particular, seven species and a single genus of Trematoda (<i>Hapalotrema</i>) and a single species and genus of Nematoda (<i>Kathlania</i>) were identified. Among the Digenea flukes the species with the highest prevalence of infection were <i>Rhytidodes gelatinosus</i> (34.6%) and <i>Hapalotrema</i> sp. (33.3%), while among the Nematoda they were <i>Kathlania</i> sp. (33.3%) and <i>Sulcascaris sulcata</i> (33.3%). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was applied among the recovery sites of the stranded loggerhead sea turtles and prevalence of endoparasites was used to highlight any relationship between the parasites and the origin of the hosts. ANOVA showed significant differences (<i>p</i> < 0.001) among the data used.
ISSN:2076-2615