Intranuclear coccidiosis in tortoises - discovery of its causative agent and transmission.

Intranuclear coccidiosis of testudines (known as TINC) is an emerging disease in chelonians. Although endogenous stages were repeatedly detected in various tissues, attempts to find the oocysts in faeces failed, leaving the question of the transmission and classification of the causative agent of TINC unresolved. We recorded small spherical oocysts (∼6-7 μm in diameter) of an eimeriid coccidium in faeces of a leopard tortoise (Stigmochelys pardalis).