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Sea Turtles Ecotoxicology Sea turtles along the Florida coast have experienced an
increase in the incidence of fibropapilloma tumors in juveniles. These tumors are thought to redu=
ce
turtle survival significantly.
The occurrence of these tumors predominates at locations that are
impacted by human contaminants, hence, we have hypothesized that chemical
contaminants such as pesticides are reducing the sea turtle’s immun=
ity
to viral infections. In
collaboration with the University of Central Florida and the University of
Hawaii, we collected blood from sea turtles and conducted cellular diagno=
stic
examination and a contaminant chemistry screening. The data indicate that the turtl=
es
from a polluted site and who have high incidence of tumors have an altered
cellular physiological profile in comparison with the cellular physiologi=
cal
profile in turtles from a non-polluted site that have a 0% incidence of
tumors. Blood cell culturing
toxicology experiments indicate a strong correlation of cellular
physiological profiles of the turtles from the polluted site with tumors,=
and
bloods cells exposed to pesticides. This work has been presented at two
scientific conferences, a public forum, and will be submitted to a scient=
ific
journal. This project was funded by the State of Florida and the Walt Dis=
ney
Foundation. |
Healthy
Turtle
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Infected
Turtle
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![3D"http://haereticus-lab.org/Healthy%20turtle.jpg"](3D"SeaTurtlesEcotoxicology1_files/image005.jpg")
![3D"http://haereticus-lab.org/Sick%20turtle.jpg"](3D"SeaTurtlesEcotoxicology1_files/image006.jpg")