RESPONSES OF THE ALLIGATOR 



TO INFECTION AND THERMAL STRESS 



ARMAND B. GLASSMAN and CAROL E. BENNETT 



Department of Laboratory Medicine, Medical University of South Carolina, 



Charleston, South Carolina 



ABSTRACT 



The effects of infection by Aeromonas hydrophila in Alligator mississippiensis 

 were studied. Peripheral blood components and serum protein electrophoretic 

 patterns in normal vs. infected and/or thermally stressed animals are described. 

 Alligators respond to bacterial infection with an increase in white blood cells of 

 the neutrophilic macrophage types. Leech infestations are associated with an 

 increase in eosinophils. Treatment of animals, either with a topical antibiotic 

 ointment or intramuscular injections of an appropriate antibiotic, results in 

 healing of lesions and return of the white blood cell counts to normal levels. 

 Removal of leeches leads to a decrease in eosinophilic counts. Serum protein 

 electrophoretic changes accompanying infection include an increase in total 

 protein and in the gamma and alpha 2 fractions. As alligators age total protein 

 increases, primarily from an increase in the gamma region. 



The American alligator plays an important role in shaping and 

 maintaining the animal life in swamps, lakes, and rivers over a 

 widespread area of the southeastern United States (Craighead, 1968). 

 Alligators are aquatic poikilothermic reptiles relying on water as their 

 primary medium for locomotion and their main source of food. 

 Water temperature is intimately involved in their thermoregulation. 

 Alligators remain in the water during hot summer days, almost 

 totally restricting their terrestrial activities until darkness. Increases 

 in ambient water temperature, above 35°C, could pose serious 

 problems by altering their thermoregulatory mechanisms (Colbert, 

 Cowles, and Bogart, 1946). 



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