June 1995

I

Asiatic Herpetological ResearchVol.

6, pp.

28-29

Simplified Field Technique for Obtaining Blood from Freshwater Turtles

RESHMA batra and Sant prakashDepartment of Zoology, D.EJ., Dayalbagh Agra, 282 005, India

Brief Communication
Studies on the biochemical andmolecular aspects have now been recognized
as essential components of the conservation
program of species. The choice of the tissue
in such studies haveinvariably been theblood and this has necessitated researchers
to look for the best procedure for fieldsampling without harming or sacrificing theanimal.

Several methods have been proposed toobtain uncontaminated blood, each having
its merit restricted to thespecies under study
or to the specific experiment. The mostcommon method of collection of samples ofblood

has been by cardiac
puncture (Gandal, 1958; Stephens andCreekmore, 1983) but has been less popularin turtles because of their thick plastron.
Cutting off the end of the tail (Duguy,1970), toenail clipping (Frye, 1991) orcollecting blood from the major veins andarteries (Maxwell, 1979) have been some ofthe other proposals. Each of them has atleast one disadvantage; for example, intricate
dissection of veins/arteries is required
insyringe

reptiles(Avery and Vitt, 1984). The procedure forobtaining blood samples from the ventral
caudal vein, as suggested by Galbraith(pers. comm.) and described in alligatorsnapping turtles (Powell and Knesel, 1992),
has been initially utilized in our procedure
but we had to discard it as the amount ofblood obtained was not enough for multiple
analyses. Falling back on the oldest methodof heart puncture by inserting a long needle
laterally through the soft tissue between theplastron and the carapace, we found that thefront leg provides the safest and the shortest

way to reach the heart, thus avoiding thedrilling of the plastron.

In addition,ourtechnique does not require elaborate
equipment and can be used easily in thefield.

© 1995 by Asiatic Herpetological Research

FIG.

1.

Method for obtaining blood,fight fore-leg, s:h:heart, rfl:

syringe.

We have applied this technique in theof the genus Kachuga, K. tentoria
and K. dhongoka. These are primarily
medium sized turtles with males ranging
between 4-8 inches and females between 9turtles

18 inches in length.
Presumably thistechnique can be applied to many otherturtles of similar size.

Handling of the turtles, to keep themdocile, is the skill of the field worker and no

standard procedure can be described for it.

However, the turtle has to be suspended in amanner that the head hangs freely
downward and the foreleg remains
unrestrained. The weight of the body forces
the foreleg to stretch, but this may needsome time.

In this position, the left foreleg

can be stretched at an angle of 35° from thehead. The skin joining the leg with theIApril 1995

is dabbed with 95% alcohol inorder to sterilize the area (Fig. 1).
A 2-inch long 32-gauge hypodermic
needle attached to a 5 ml syringe is inserted(as shown in the figure) parallel to theThe needle is gently
stretched foreleg.
inserted until it reaches the ventricle. The
depth of the needle penetration is often
between 1-1.5 inches. Gentle suction isapplied until the blood spurts into thesyringe and withdrawal pressure is thenLiterature Cited

carapace

slowly increased, until the syringe is at its
suction capacity. The needle is thenslowly pulled out, with full syringe suction
still being applied. About 2-3 ml of blood isfulldrawn per sample. No pressure is applied
for the control of bleeding as no visible
bleeding occurs in this procedure.
However, germicidal powder is immediately
sprinkled at the point of the insertion of theneedle, before marking and releasing theturtles.

AVERY, H. W. AND L. J.
get blood from a turtle.

DUGUY, R.

1970.

VITT.

1984.

How toCopeia 1984:209-210.

Numbers of blood cells andBiology of reptiles. Pp. 93-109. In
Gans and Parson (Eds). Academic Press, New York.
their variation.

FRYE, F. L. 1991. Biomedical and surgical aspectsof captive reptiles husbandry, Vol.
Publishing Co., Inc., Florida.

GANDAL, C. P.

1958.

1.

Kreiger

Cardiac punctureinanaestized turtles. Zoologica 43:93-94.

MAXWELL, J. H. 1979. Anaethesia and surgery.
Pp. 127-152. In Harless and Morlock (Eds) Turtles:
perspective and research. John Wiley and Sons,
New York.
POWELL, S. C. AND J. A. KNESEL.

1992. Bloodcollection from Macroclemys temmincki (Troost).

Herpetological Review 23(1): 19.

Blood samples have successfully beencollected from over 50 freshwater turtles andseveral of them have been utilized for
repetitive blood lettings and maintained in

captivity for over 4 months with no apparent
For field sampling, this
ill-effects.

procedure provides a safe, practical andsimple technique for obtaining blood inturtles.

Acknowledgments

We thank Mr. Dayal Prashad Gupta andMr. Akash Mathur for their help in turtle
collection.

Vol. 6, p. 29

Asiatic Herpetological ResearchSTEPHENS, G. A. AND J. S. CREEKMORE.

1983.

Blood collection by cardiac puncture in conscious
turtles.

Copeia 1983:522-523.