Abstract
The impact of the intestinal and fecal microbiome on animal health has received considerable attention in recent years and has direct implications for the veterinary and wildlife rehabilitation fields. To examine the effects of rehabilitation on the microbiome in Kemp’s ridley sea turtlesLepidochelys kempii, fecal samples from 30 incidentally captured juveniles were collected during rehabilitation. Samples were analyzed to determine alpha- (α) and beta- (β) diversity as well as the taxonomic abundance of the fecal microbiota during rehabilitation and in response to treatment with antibiotics. The fecal microbial communities of animals housed in rehabilitation for a ‘short-term’ stay (samples collected 0-9 d post-capture) were compared with ‘long-term’ (samples collected 10+ d post-capture) and ‘treated’ groups (samples collected from turtles that had received antibiotic medication). Results of this study indicate that the most dominant phylum in fecal samples wasBacteroidetes(relative abundance, 45.44 ± 5.92% [SD]), followed byFirmicutes(26.62 ± 1.58%),Fusobacteria(19.49 ± 9.07%), andProteobacteria(7.39 ± 1.84%). Similarly, at the family level,Fusobacteriaceae(28.36 ± 17.75%),Tannerellaceae(15.41 ± 10.50%),Bacteroidaceae(14.58 ± 8.48%), andRuminococcaceae(11.49 ± 3.47%) were the most abundant. Our results indicated that both antibiotic-treated and long-term rehabilitated turtles demonstrated a significant decrease in β-diversity when compared to short-term rehabilitated turtles. Our results likewise showed that the length of time turtles spent in rehabilitation was negatively correlated with α- and β-diversity. This study demonstrates the importance of a judicious use of antibiotics during the rehabilitation process and emphasizes the importance of limiting the length of hospital stays for sick and injured sea turtles as much as possible.
Highlights
The relationship between the microbiome and overall organism health has received increased attention in recent years (Carding et al 2015)
The characterization of the fecal microbiome for sea turtles worldwide is an area of growing interest
Our results demonstrate that the most dominant phylum in fecal samples from Kemp’s ridley sea turtles were Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, Fusobacteria, and Proteobacteria
Summary
The relationship between the microbiome and overall organism health has received increased attention in recent years (Carding et al 2015). Kemp’s ridley sea turtle Lepidochelys kempii is among the most critically endangered sea turtles in the world (Wibbels & Bevan 2019). Research on this species has been primarily limited to data obtained during annual arribada nesting events, which predominantly occur in Mexico and Texas (Hildebrand 1963, Marquez 1994, Shaver & Rubio 2013), and health data and population parameters have been informed primarily from nesting females and hatchlings. Opportunistic research during the rehabilitation of incidentally captured juvenile Kemp’s ridley sea turtles provides a unique perspective into the life history of this species (Coleman et al 2016)
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