Fig 1.
a: oronasally; b: intracloacally; c: Intracoelomically; here T. graeca.
Fig 2.
Ventral view at T. graeca no. 8 (a) and no. 9 (b) at day 90 p.i.; note the greyish colouration of the lateral plastron in G8.
Fig 3.
Mean weight gain in the groups during the survey period.
Fig 4.
Gross pathological findings in the euthanised animals.
a: soft carapace and plastron b: plastron with sieve like bone matter and lack of bridging between the ribs c: enlarged swollen kidneys d: urinary bladder emptied, with uric acid conglomerates.
Fig 5.
Comparison of carapace structure and kidneys in infected and non-infected tortoises.
a: Carapace of control animal T. graeca CG1; b: Carapace of animal T. graeca G9; c: Kidneys of control animal T. graeca CG1 d: Kidneys of T.graeca G9 The carapace of G9 shows only thin rib bones (A) with fibrous tissue in between (B), in the control animal the intercostal space is filled with bone matter The kidneys of the infected animal are swollen and the natural structure is not visibleas in the kidneys of the control animal.
Fig 6.
Histologic findings in the carapace bone; 200 x; HE staining.
a: control animal: stage 0; densely aggregated fibrous tissue (A) with numerous fibrocytes and dense bone matter with numerous osteocytes (B) b: stage 1; fibrous tissue forming irregular aggregates, variable density of fibroblasts, bone matter with reduced number of osteocytes c: stage 2;moderate rarefication of fibrous tissue with fiber separation and substantially reduced numbers of fibrocytes; bone matter with loosened structure and reduced numbers of osteocytes d: stage 3; severe rarefication of fibrous tissue with only occasional fibrocytes (C), extremely narrowed bone spicules with only scattered osteocytes.
Fig 7.
Histologic findings in the kidneys; 200 x; HE staining.
a: Control animal, stage 0; no alterations in kidney parenchyma b: stage 1; mild interstitial edema, mild tubular vacuolization c: stage 2; moderate tubular vacuolisation, moderate interstitial edema (A) d: stage 3; severe tubular vacuolisation (B), tubular lumina are absent, severe interstitial edema.
Table 1.
Post mortem findings in experimentally tortoise picornavirus infected tortoises.
Fig 8.
Number of positive RT PCR tests of swab samples during the trial; total test amount 29 G: T. graeca; H: T. hermanni; 1–10: Number of single animal; dpi: Days post inoculation Red: Positive; Green: Negative; Black: Not tested Last column presents positive results of total testing (29) in each animal, to show the high number of positive tests in early euthanized animals.
Fig 9.
Number of RT PCR positive organ samples collected during necropsy; total number 20.