Comprehensive Health Assessment of Sea Turtles

Sea turtle (ST) health is important to conservation since these taxa are susceptible to infectious diseases that increased mortality. Threats to survival and nesting of STs are increasingly publicized in Hong Kong; however, ST health status has yet to be assessed. Clinical health baseline, knowledge of common pathologies, signs of traumatic injuries and mortality, along with a standardized approach to postmortem investigation are essential to reveal the host-agent-environment interactions in ST health and anthropogenic impacts in local and adjacent waters. Comprehensive health assessment incorporating clinical assessment, postmortem investigation and toxicological analyses will allow prediction of the effects of environment on disease occurrence and prevalence, and anthropogenic impacts on wild ST populations in a timely manner, which facilitates active intervention strategies from related local and regional governmental agencies to be employed.