Trichinella pseudospiralis infection in red-eared slider, Trachemys scripta, influenced by environmental temperature

Abstract

Experimental infection with Trichinella pseudospiralis larvae in red-eared slider Trachemys scripta was carried out. Ten turtles were divided into 3 groups and kept at different temperature (38, 32 and 28 °C). The turtles were fed mice muscles which were infected with T. pseudospiralis larvae (444 - 23,013 larvae/mouse), kept in the aforementioned temperature and necropsied at day 30 after infection. At necropsy, the tongue, forelimbs, hindlimbs and spinal column muscles of turtles were removed separately for pepsin digestion, and the larvae counted. Larvae were found from all 3 turtles kept at 38 °C. Larvae per gram of muscle were highest in the tongue. No larvae were recovered from turtles kept at 32 and 28 °C. The result suggested that T. pseudospiralis is able to infect the red-eared slider in a high temperature environment. We speculated that environmental temperature play an important role in altering the physiological condition of the turtle to facilitate the infection of T. pseudospiralis.

Keywords: Environmental temperature; Experimental infection; Red-eared slider; Trichinella pseudospiralis; Turtles.