Parasites in feral Chelodina longicollis (Shaw, 1794) (Testudines: Pleurodira: Chelidae) in Tasmania
Diane P. Barton
A * and Simon Fearn B
+ Author Affiliations
- Author Affiliations
A School of Agriculture, Environmental and Veterinary Sciences, Charles Sturt University, Wagga Wagga, NSW 2678, Australia.
B Natural Sciences, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston, Tas. 7250, Australia.
Australian Journal of Zoology 69(3) 92-101 https://doi.org/10.1071/ZO21044
Submitted: 1 October 2021 Accepted: 3 February 2022 Published: 22 March 2022
© 2021 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)
Abstract
Feral populations of Chelodina longicollis (Shaw, 1794) have established in Tasmania but many aspects of their biology in the wild remain unknown. A number of C. longicollis specimens were available for examination for parasites. Two species of digenean parasites were found in three of the 11 turtles examined: a Choanocotyle sp. and Thrinascotrema brisbanica Jue Sue & Platt, 1999. This is the first report of parasites from feral turtles in Tasmania. Due to the lack of native populations of freshwater turtles in Tasmania, these parasites must also have been introduced to Tasmania and have established life cycles in the new environments. The implications of such introductions, without suitable definitive hosts available to assist in establishing parasite infections, is discussed. An updated list of digenean parasites reported from Australian freshwater turtles is presented.
Keywords: Chelidae, Choanocotylidae, Digenea, host–parasite checklist, host–parasite relationship, introduced host, introduced parasite, Thrinascotrematidae.
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