Bacterial Infections in Sea Turtles

Abstract

Sea turtles are important for the maintenance of marine and beach ecosystems, but they are seriously endangered due to factors mainly related to human activities and climate change such as pollution, temperature increase, and predation. Infectious and parasitic diseases may contribute to reducing the number of sea turtles. Bacteria are widespread in marine environments and, depending on the species, may act as primary or opportunistic pathogens. Most of them are able to infect other animal species, including humans, in which they can cause mild or severe diseases. Therefore, direct or indirect contact of humans with sea turtles, their products, and environment where they live represent a One Health threat. Chlamydiae, Mycobacteria, and Salmonellae are known zoonotic agents able to cause mild or severe diseases in sea turtles, other animals, and humans. However, other bacteria that are potentially zoonotic, including those that are antimicrobially resistant, are involved in different pathologies of marine turtles.

Bacterial and fungal assemblages of the gut and carapace of loggerhead sea turtles

“…Out of pathogenic bacteria reported in sea turtles as reviewed in [11], we detected Cardiobacterium spp. and Suttonella spp.…”

“…To lessen some of the pressure sea turtles face today, global conservation efforts have focused on safeguarding female turtles and nesting areas, and rehabilitating injured turtles [8]. Motivated by the aim of enhancing the rehabilitation and conservation of wild animals and their associated microbiomes, the studies of sea turtle gut, skin, egg, and nest microbiomes has become a forefront in sea turtle conservation research, building upon cultivation-based and pathogen-oriented research in the veterinary domain [10,11].…”

“…Previous studies that used culture-dependent approaches have identi ed most common pathogens associated with mucosal surfaces, skin lesions (such as bacterial families Aeromonadaceae, Pseudomonadaceae, Enterobacteriaceae), and hatchling failure (Fusarium spp. ), with the presence of antibiotic resistance genes indicating loggerheads as sentinels of antibiotic pollution in the Mediterranean [11,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. Recent investigations using next-generation sequencing approaches to study the loggerhead microbiota shed light on the bacterial community structure and composition of the gastrointestinal tract [5,22,23], the impact of rehabilitation on mucosal bacteriomes [23,24], the effects of plastic pollution on the gut bacteria [25], variations in microbial communities driven by localities [26,27] or turtle anatomy [27,28], and host-microbial coevolution patterns [29].…”

Loggerhead Sea Turtles as Hosts of Diverse Bacterial and Fungal Communities

“…To lessen some of the pressure sea turtles face today, global conservation efforts have focused on safeguarding female turtles and nesting areas, and rehabilitating injured turtles [8]. Motivated by the aim of enhancing the rehabilitation and conservation of wild animals and their associated microbiomes, the studies of sea turtle gut, skin, egg, and nest microbiomes have become a forefront in sea turtle conservation research, building upon cultivation-based and pathogenoriented research in the veterinary domain [10][11][12].…”

“…Previous studies that used culture-dependent approaches have identi ed most common pathogens associated with mucosal surfaces, skin lesions (such as bacterial families Aeromonadaceae, Pseudomonadaceae, Enterobacteriaceae), and hatchling failure (Fusarium spp. ), with the presence of antibiotic resistance genes indicating loggerheads as sentinels of antibiotic pollution in the Mediterranean [11,[14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22]. Recent investigations using next-generation sequencing approaches to study the loggerhead microbiota shed light on the bacterial community structure and composition of the gastrointestinal tract [5,23,24], the impact of rehabilitation on mucosal bacteriomes [24,25], the effects of plastic pollution on the gut bacteria [26], variations in microbial communities driven by localities [27,28] or turtle anatomy [28,29], and host-microbial coevolution patterns [30].…”