Abstract:
Study was conducted between 23
rd
May till 31
st
July 2010 on nesting green sea
turtles (Che/onia mydas) on Chagar Hutang, Redang Island, Malaysia. Blood samples
were obtained from nine individuals. Six of them are normal, and the rest are categorized
as stressed C. mydas. A stress C. mydas suffers from injuries such as amputation of
flippers, tumors and present of parasite such as barnacle. These stress physical condition
are caused by natural disease and human act. Samples were withdrawn from dorsal
cervical sinus by using 18 Gauge needle into ethylene diamine tetraacetic acid (EDTA)
tube. In erythrocytes morphological studies, the thin blood smears were stain with
Giemsa stain. However, Wright's stain was used for leukocytes morphological studies.
Both were observed under 1 OOOx magnification. The erythrocyte observed is a nucleated
red blood cell with a rounded and elongated cytoplasm presence. This study was
concentrated on the differences size of erythrocytes of normal and stressed C. mydas.
Erythrocytes size for normal C. mydas is 211.34 ± 21.05 µm
and for its nucleus is 26.42
± 3.00 µm
2
2
• As for erythrocytes size of stressed C. mydas is 151.69 ± 18.75 µm
2
and the
nucleus is 18.40 ± 2.08 µm
2
•
