title: Development of a Summarized Health Index (SHI) for use in predicting survival in sea turtles.
abstract: Veterinary care plays an influential role in sea turtle rehabilitation, especially in endangered species. Physiological characteristics, hematological and plasma biochemistry profiles, are useful references for clinical management in animals, especially when animals are during the convalescence period. In this study, these factors associated with sea turtle surviving were analyzed. The blood samples were collected when sea turtles remained alive, and then animals were followed up for surviving status. The results indicated that significantly negative correlation was found between buoyancy disorders (BD) and sea turtle surviving (p < 0.05). Furthermore, non-surviving sea turtles had significantly higher levels of aspartate aminotranspherase (AST), creatinine kinase (CK), creatinine and uric acid (UA) than surviving sea turtles (all p < 0.05). After further analysis by multiple logistic regression model, only factors of BD, creatinine and UA were included in the equation for calculating summarized health index (SHI) for each individual. Through evaluation by receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve, the result indicated that the area under curve was 0.920 ± 0.037, and a cut-off SHI value of 2.5244 showed 80.0% sensitivity and 86.7% specificity in predicting survival. Therefore, the developed SHI could be a useful index to evaluate health status of sea turtles and to improve veterinary care at rehabilitation facilities.
authors: National Museum of Marine Biology and Aquarium, Checheng, Pingtung, 94450, Taiwan; Graduate Institute of Microbiology and Public Health, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, 40227, Taiwan.
authors: Tsung-Hsien
authors: TH
authors: Li
authors: Graduate Institute of Microbiology and Public Health, National Chung Hsing University, Taichung, 40227, Taiwan.
authors: Chao-Chin
authors: CC
authors: Chang
authors: Institute of Marine Biology, National Taiwan Ocean University, Keelung, 20224, Taiwan.
authors: I-Jiunn
authors: IJ
authors: Cheng
authors: Department of Veterinary Medicine, National Pingtung University of Science and Technology, Pingtung, 91201, Taiwan.
authors: Suen-Chuain
authors: SC
authors: Lin
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001219:Aspartate Aminotransferases / Q000097:blood; D003401:Creatine / Q000097:blood; D003402:Creatine Kinase / Q000097:blood; D056727:Endangered Species; D008954:Models, Biological; D010341:Pathology, Veterinary; D030162:Reptilian Proteins / Q000097:blood; D014426:Turtles / Q000097:blood* / Q000502:physiology*; D014527:Uric Acid / Q000097:blood
chemical_list: D030162:Reptilian Proteins; D014527:Uric Acid; D001219:Aspartate Aminotransferases; D003402:Creatine Kinase; D003401:Creatine