i dont see how that would be at all viable. who would foot the bill for the testing? breeders before they sell the torts? tortoise farms? individual owners? it costs £80 just for a person to get a passport so what cost would it be to properely police a genetic profiling system and reliable database with defra? would it not dramaticaly increase prices of keeping a tortoise, therefor leading to ai ncreased market for ilegal/imported/farmed tortoises? surely microchipping is a safer more widely available databasing method, yet most tortoise owners see that as unneccesary unless they are breeding the animal.

Nope... if you recall, tortoises are temperature sex determined... that means there is no XY chromosomes so the males and females are genetically the same.

Your suggestion was tried on Galapagos tortoises and they were the same.

Ed

Cost wise, I have no idea of cost. It was just an idea. People also have their reservations with microchips.

Who knows, but at the end of the day, if people want a tort, and a reliable method is available to sex it, then why not use it. If people want a cheap (er) tort, then they will buy a farmed one, and to some extent thats fine as well. It takes allsort (as the saying goes...).
Andy

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Your right Ed, sex chromosomes are missing in some (if not most) tort species. This doesn't mean its not possible, it does mean its more difficult. But would be possible possibly using microsats.

Andy

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What was fascinating about the post was that the procedure was done on Chinese Box turtles... they are about the size of a 20p piece.

The procedure is minimally invasive. The body cavity is filled with nitrogen gas (inert gas) so the instrument does not touch any organs.

The incision is made forward of the rear leg because that is closest to the kidneys... where the gonads are located.

ed

If you know of a chelonian that has sex chromosomes I, as well as many genetisists, would be very interested.

As I mentioned... genetic testing has been tried and it has failed every time.

Ed

very interesting topic indeed. i didnt know that they could try it (with great success) on such small torts. i have seen it done on sea turtles but the tools used are MUCH bigger, as are the turtles!

The scopes are 2mm in diameter.

Ed

I see - the probe it is then. Do you think you could do it with a CAT scan?

What you're looking for is the texture of the organ. I don't think that would show up on a CAT scan.

Vets have been looking for a means of sexing chelonians for way over 30 years.

Ed