\n<\/p>\n
SINGAPORE: Two yellow-spotted river turtles were found dead in the same week at the Singapore Zoo about a month ago.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For Dr Hsu Chia-Da, the timing immediately raised a troubling possibility: Could there be a disease outbreak?\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen two animals die back-to-back, (we) always think maybe there\u2019s a disease outbreak,\u201d said the senior veterinary pathologist at Mandai Wildlife Group.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cBut sometimes, it just happens.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Finding out which was the case fell to the 43-year-old.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For one of the turtles, determining what had killed it was complicated by the condition in which it had been found \u2013 it had been in water overnight before its carcass was discovered. In Singapore\u2019s heat, decomposition can happen quickly.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe longer the carcass is outside, the more \u2026 bacteria starts to grow, and we cannot find out the (cause that) killed the animal,\u201d Dr Hsu said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThe main issue in Southeast Asia is that the temperature is always hot, so they decompose much faster.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
After examining the turtles, Dr Hsu could rule out some possibilities but could not give a definitive answer.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019re no obvious signs of trauma and infection,\u201d he said, adding that however, he could not conclusively rule out potential infection.\u00a0<\/p>\n
As a precaution, he suggested keepers closely monitor the enclosure for a period of time and bring in any animal showing symptoms of illness, such as a loss of appetite.\u00a0<\/p>\n
For the past decade, Dr Hsu has been searching for answers in what animals leave behind, examining their bodies for clues that can help veterinarians and keepers provide better care.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Unlike clinical veterinarians, who diagnose and treat living animals, his work only begins after death.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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SINGAPORE: Two yellow-spotted river turtles were found dead in the same week at the Singapore Zoo about a month ago.\u00a0 For Dr Hsu Chia-Da, the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":87832,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/dam.mediacorp.sg\/image\/upload\/s--CAdSEjSK--\/c_fill,g_auto,h_676,w_1200\/fl_relative,g_south_east,l_mediacorp:cna:watermark:2021-08:cna,w_0.1\/f_auto,q_auto\/v1\/mediacorp\/cna\/image\/2026\/09\/25\/screenshot_2026-09-24_135657.png?itok=HowMXRRK","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[829,159,3134,17316,272,22,18061,23162],"class_list":["post-87831","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-buzz-news-sg-global","tag-animal","tag-death","tag-dies","tag-investigates","tag-meet","tag-singapore","tag-vet","tag-zoo","wpcat-2-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/87832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}