Content area
Full Text
ABSTRACT. -
Two separate populations of threatened gopher tortoises (Gopherus polyphemus) in Florida were found to carry Salmonella spp. during relocation efforts from Orange and St. Johns Counties to Walton County. The potentially zoonotic bacteria were detected using cloacal swabs for culture and PCR analysis. Although there was a difference in the amount of perceived clinical stress undergone in each group, the percentage of tortoises shedding Salmonella was not statistically significant between the cohorts (9% and 11%). All isolates underwent antibiotic sensitivity testing and were susceptible to 10 antibiotic compounds.
The gopher tortoise (Gopherus polyphemus) is a keystone species in the environment. It is listed as Threatened in southwest Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana by the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) and in Florida by the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC), which recently uplisted it to Threatened status from a Species of Special Concern. Populations are also found in Georgia and the southeast corner of South Carolina.
Gopher tortoises are known for their enormous (4.5 m long × 2 m deep) burrows which also serve as a home to over 300 species of invertebrates along with about 80 vertebrate commensals, including frogs, juvenile gopher tortoises as well as other chelonian taxa, snakes, small mammals, and birds such as the Florida scrub jay and burrowing owl. Several of these commensals are legally protected and of high conservation value, such as indigo snakes and gopher frogs, adding to the intrinsic value of the gopher tortoise in the ecosystem. Tortoises live 40-60 y or more and dig many burrows within their home range and preferred habitat of longleaf pine forests.
According to FWC biologists, the number of tortoises has dropped by 60%-80% in the last century because of human-related habitat destruction (ABRPI 2008). In an effort to minimize the gopher tortoise's potential decline in Florida, in 1991 the FWC established incidental "take permits" for the state-listed reptile. This permit authorized the "taking (i.e., entombment or killing) of gopher tortoises incidental to development activities provided that adequate compensatory occupied tortoise habitat is preserved and managed in perpetuity." Since then, more than 94,000 tortoises have been knowingly entombed; although, actual numbers are estimated at up to 900,000 lost from the population resulting from this state management practice...