Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Dear to whom this may concern,

I am doing a science project on URTD in the Desert Tortoise population. My project would be seeing the infection rate among turtles in urban population versus the rate found in those in a more rural area. I would also try to find possible sourecs in where Mycoplasma Agassizii could be found/be the possible bacterias location. However, in order to do my project, I would have to deal with many of the current hibernating desert tortoises in rural areas and in people's homes. I was wondering if there is a way to take nasal flushes without disturbing the tortoises in hibernation or if I might be able to wake them for a short period in order to take nasal flushes without hurting the tortoises.

Hi,

This is a fascinating topic that is very worthwhile to study. I’m glad that you asked the question about taking samples from the tortoises while they are hibernating. Here is information from the Science Buddies website about projects involving vertebrate animals.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... mals.shtml

You are only allowed to do projects that are non-invasive and non-intrusive, so you would not be allowed to take samples from the tortoises

Are you working in a lab with Mycoplasma? If you have access to a laboratory, perhaps there is another project you could do to work on this problem. Were you planning to try to culture the organism or do pcr? Doing a science project with this organism would require preapproval from your local scientific review committee before you start.

https://www.sciencebuddies.org/science- ... ents.shtml

Please let us know if you have more questions.

Donna Hardy