A New System For Marking Hatchling Turtles Using Visible Implant Elastomer

摘要

Obtaining blood samples is vital to many physiological and immunological studies. However the ease of sampling diminishes as the size of the animal decreases while the potential for harming the study organism increases. This is especially true in amphibians where reproductive adults can be as small as 2 cm and thin skin is prone to tear. Normal venous blood collection techniques for anurans include collection from the ventral abdominal, femoral, or sublingual vein (Hadfield and Whitakei 2005). Cardiocentesis is also a common collection technique particularly for smaller anurans due to small vessel size (Allender and Fry 2008). This technique is performed by inserting a syringe equipped with a hypodermic needle directly into the ventricle of the heart (Brazaitis and Watanabe 1982). Cardiocentesis protocols commonly suggest anesthesia to prevent additional damage to the heart or internal organs (Allender and Fry 2008). However, in most amphibians anesthesia can be precarious due to their sensitivity to anesthetics (Koustubhan et al. 2013) and it can interfere with many physiological measures that may be of interest (Houston et al. 1971; Cathers et al. 1997). If anesthesia is not an option, manual restraint must be used in conjunction with cardiocentesis. Small anurans are notoriously difficult to handle and because the heart presents such a very small target, it is easy to miss and puncture neighboring organs causing more damage than necessary and perhaps mortality. Restraint of smaller subjects without the aid of anesthesia is a difficult task and can cause injury in and of itself. For these reasons, investigators are faced with the challenge of creating a new technique that allows for more accurate location of the heart and less stressful restraint for smaller subjects.