Journal article
Spirorchiidiasis in marine turtles: the current state of knowledge
Phoebe A Chapman, Thomas H Cribb, Mark Flint, Rebecca J Traub, David Blair, Myat T Kyaw-Tanner, Paul C Mills
Diseases of Aquatic Organisms | INTER-RESEARCH | Published : 2019
DOI: 10.3354/dao03348
Abstract
Blood flukes of the family Spirorchiidae are important disease agents in marine turtles. The family is near cosmopolitan in distribution. Twenty-nine marine species across 10 genera are currently recognized, but taxonomic problems remain and it is likely that more species will be discovered. Spirorchiids infect the circulatory system, where they and their eggs cause a range of inflammatory lesions. Infection is sometimes implicated in the death of the turtle. In some regions, prevalence in stranded turtles is close to 100%. Knowledge of life cycles, important for control and epidemiological studies, has proven elusive until recently, when the first intermediate host identifications were made..
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Awarded by Australian Research Council
Funding Acknowledgements
This work was supported by the Australian Research Council (Linkage Grant number LP110100569). We also offer sincere thanks to the reviewers of this manuscript for their carefully considered and very helpful feedback.