Article Review: Polyarthritis in Sea Turtles

I recently discovered an article outlining an interesting issue affecting many sea turtles, that I had never known about. This article discussed the frequency of polyarthritis in sea turtles, joint swelling, and how it was observed at a rehabilitation center in Reunion Island, France. The article discussed how when the turtles are affected by this issue, they can experience a number of detrimental side effects including anorexia, lethargy and inability to use the limbs. This can lead to increased rate of other infections in the turtle and is overall a major threat to the health of many species of sea turtles.

These researchers performed a study where 13 turtles were radiographically confirmed with polyarthritis and tested on a treatment dose of injectable florfenicol, at individualized dosages, for 4 weeks and then reassessed to determine if more dosages were necessary. Overall, this treatment proved to be fairly successful, with 9 out of the 13 turtles showing stabilization. This article provided a potentially useful solution to the treatment of this detrimental issue.

This article provides us with knowledge about disorders that are affecting sea turtle populations that we may not otherwise know about. This can be very valuable in leading to improved conservation efforts and allow us to take these factors into consideration when dealing with turtle injuries and conservation as a whole. This was very eye opening to me, as I never realized problems like this may be contributing to factors affecting our populations of sea turtles as well as other reptiles and amphibians.

Article:
Cruciani B, et al. (2019). Management of Polyarthritis Affecting Sea Turtles at Kelonia, the Reunion Island Sea Turtle Observatory (2013-17). Journal of Wildlife Diseases 55(2), 455-461