Grant: 22-033C
Project Title: Sea Turtle Healing Center Veterinary Equipment
Project Manager: Trevor Zachariah, DVM, MS, DACZM
Organization: East Coast Zoological Society of Florida (Brevard Zoo) (Non-Profit Organization)
Grant Amount: $11,688.45
Completion Date: 2023-06-06
Summary: Through this project, East Coast Zoological Society of Florida will support the veterinary equipment needs of its Sea Turtle Healing Center (STHC) at Brevard Zoo. Since 2014, the STHC has answered the call to care for ailing sea turtles. Staffed by two full-time staff members and more than 65 regular volunteers, the STHC takes in rescued sick and injured sea turtles, rehabilitates them back to health, and returns them to their natural habitat. Since the STHC opened seven years ago, the number of patients brought into the Center has grown from about 50 to more than 100 a year. STHC will purchase an electroporator, which will provide a more effective method of removing internal tumors from sea turtles suffering with fibropapillomatosis (FP). This equipment will improve care for FP-positive sea turtles by ensuring timely treatment of their internal FP tumors and possibly lower rates of tumor regrowth, decreased rehabilitation time, and decreased mortality rates. 
Results: ECZS purchased an ELECTROVET EZ V3.0 unipolar pulsed electric field generator for veterinary use from LEROY Biotech for $9,990.13 The electroporator arrived July 28, 2022. The electroporator was immediately deployed to treat sea turtles with fibropapillomatosis (FP) tumors. To date, the STHC has provided 5 treatments to 3 turtles, and has administered several sea turtles with an intravenous dose of chemotherapy drugs for their tumors. Early results are promising, and all patients are still undergoing treatment. The STHC plans to purchase closed-system chemotherapy delivery devices to supplement further electroporator and chemotherapy treatments before April 30, 2023.