Blood profiles from wild populations of green sea turtles in Taiwan

Chia-ling Fong, Ho-Chang Chen and I-Jiunn Cheng*

Institute of Marine Biology, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, Taiwan,

202-24, Republic of China.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: b0107@mail.ntou.edu.tw. Tel: 886-2-24622192,

Ext 5303. Fax: 886-2-24628974.

Accepted 8 January, 2010.

   Abstract

Blood samples were obtained from twenty seven clinically healthy by-catched green turtles (Chelonia mydas). The packed cell volume (PCV) and 14 plasma biochemistry parameters were determined from these samples. The PCV values were lower in sub-adult green turtles than in the adults while the plasma AST concentration was higher in the sub-adults than in the adults. These variations may be due to the age of the turtle and the period of the year when the samples were taken. The results of this study provide the first plasma biochemistry baseline profiles for free-ranging green sea turtles in Taiwan.

Key words: Green sea turtle, plasma biochemistry baseline, Taiwan.