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About This Project
We seek to determine the environmental factors that make turtles susceptible to viral infection. This project will focus on box turtles (Terrapene carolina) and red-eared sliders (Trachemys scripta). Infection from terrapene herpesvirus 1 (TerHV1) will be compared to levels of habitat degradation and overall stress, to help inform conservation strategies. We hypothesize that the moisture level and temperature of the environment will have a significant impact on the virus transmission.