Mary Brown

Mycoplasmosis is a transmissible upper respiratory tract disease that has affected plans for management and conservation of wild desert and gopher tortoises in the United States. Although impact of mycoplasmosis on populations of desert and gopher tortoises is unknown, increased prevalence of seropositive animals as well as field observations of clinically ill tortoises have occurred in associatio

Biochemical, serological and molecular genetic studies were performed on seven mycoplasma isolates that were recovered from the upper respiratory tract of clinically ill desert tortoises. The isolates were serologically related to each other but serologically distinct from previously described species. Unique mycoplasma species-specific 16S rRNA nucleotide sequences were found in the proposed type

Twenty-four ill or dead desert tortoises (Gopherus agassizii) were received between March 1992 and July 1995 for necropsies from the Mojave and Colorado deserts of California (USA). Diseases observed in these animals included cutaneous dyskeratosis (n = 7); shell necrosis (n = 2); respiratory diseases (n = 7); urolithiasis (n = 3); and trauma (n = 5). In tortoises with cutaneous dyskeratosis the h