- Joined
- Sep 23, 2012
- Messages
- 717
Just a warning to folks: a close friend working with Bell’s hingebacks has relayed to me a positive diagnosis for TINC (intranuclear coccidosis) via necropsy.
These tortoises came in to the US in mass quantities in 2020/2021 through a single importer. They then got shipped all over and were often sold as either kinixys zombensis or speckii. The vast majority of them (at least ones I know of) have now died from severe illness. The consistent symptom set seems to be extreme lethargy, followed by a rapid crash / organ failure and death within 1-2 days.
As far as I know, TINC has yet to be diagnosed in a living bells hingeback (despite many attempts to test for it), but there is a possibility it was not shedding or otherwise missed at the time samples were taken.
It seems quite possible that TINC is the cause (or one of the causes) for mass death of these imports, but I don’t know conclusively. Anyone working with this species should be extremely careful with quarantine and be prepared to test and/or treat for TINC if their tortoise seems sick. The recommended treatment at this time is ponazuril.
Luckily my friend was very careful with quarantine.
These tortoises came in to the US in mass quantities in 2020/2021 through a single importer. They then got shipped all over and were often sold as either kinixys zombensis or speckii. The vast majority of them (at least ones I know of) have now died from severe illness. The consistent symptom set seems to be extreme lethargy, followed by a rapid crash / organ failure and death within 1-2 days.
As far as I know, TINC has yet to be diagnosed in a living bells hingeback (despite many attempts to test for it), but there is a possibility it was not shedding or otherwise missed at the time samples were taken.
It seems quite possible that TINC is the cause (or one of the causes) for mass death of these imports, but I don’t know conclusively. Anyone working with this species should be extremely careful with quarantine and be prepared to test and/or treat for TINC if their tortoise seems sick. The recommended treatment at this time is ponazuril.
Luckily my friend was very careful with quarantine.