Crocodile bites: novel area for research?

Abstract

The Australian crocodile industry produces saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) skins for the international skin trade. The skins are made into luxury fashion items, such as handbags and shoes, by the acclaimed fashion houses in France, Italy and Germany. However, to achieve export status, a skin must be free of blemishes such as bites and abrasions. To counter this problem, the industry places animals in single pens to allow their skin to heal before slaughter. The time spent in single pens is highly dependent upon environmental temperatures (poikilotherms) but there is also considerable variation between animals.

Peculiarly for an industry that revolves around skin production that needs to increase the rate of wound healing whilst not compromising skin quality, little research has been conducted into the matter. To continue to increase the production efficiency of this industry, it would be beneficial to understand 1) how crocodile skin grows, 2) the interaction between the skin and the scale particularly during the growth cycle, 3) any nutritional deficiencies which could be lacking from the skin to inhibit optimal healing? Thus, I would like to ask for your professional assistance to embark on this novel project to address this issue for potential mutual benefit. Could crocodiles become a good animal model? Embryonic development is easy to manipulate and investigate given their oviparous nature, stem cells easy to recover in embryonic stages, crocodiles have biomedical properties that allow them to have a limb forcibly removed in putrid environments and survive.

Full text

Crocodile bites:
novel area for research?
Sally R. Isberg
Porosus Pty Ltd (Darwin Crocodile Farm), PO Box 86, Palmerston NT 0831
The Australian crocodile industry
-produces saltwater crocodile (Crocodylus porosus) skins
-skins exported to fashion houses in France, Italy and Germany
to become luxury fashion items such as handbags and shoes
-to meet export quality, the skins MUST be free of blemishes
such as bites and abrasions
-Little research conducted on skin development
-No research conducted on skin healing and tissue repair.
Research needs
-How does a crocodile skin grow?
-When does scale replacement occur?
-What effects healing rate? (time,
temperature, nutrition, genetics)
-How can we increase the rate of healing?
Crocodiles as a potential animal model
-embryos for stem cell research
-embryo development can be manipulated by
temperature (e.g. scale patterns and number of scale
rows)
-oviparous nature allows full-sib genetic analyses
-biomedical properties in crocodile blood being
developed as human therapy (see articles below;
Juvista)