Morphological analysis of peripheral blood cells of Chelonoidis carbonaria (Spix, 1824)

Abstract

This present work describe the peripheral blood cell morphology from Chelonoids carbonaria. To do this were used ten animal specimens clinically healthy, six female and four male, submitted to peripheral blood collect by jugular vein.  Blood was collected to prepare blood smears, without the use of anticoagulants. The slides were stained and analyzed microscopically to describe the cell morphology. The mature erythrocytes had an ellipsoid shape and a grain-free nucleus; immature ones were circular. The leukocytes, granulocytes and agranulocytes were also circular. The heterophils had cytoplasmic granules with various elongated shapes, and the eosinophils had a uniform round shape. The basophils had highly dense basophilic granules, stained in blue; the granules were irregularly arranged and also inside the nucleus. The lymphocytes were circular with a large circular nucleus. The thrombocytes were small, with basophilic staining and a small cytoplasm (the nucleus occupied almost the entire cell). The morphological results found in this study are consistent with cell types of other chelonians.