Are sutures a pathway to infection? A multidisciplinary assessment of wound healing in sharks following internal acoustic tagging

Brittany Heath; Charlie Huveneers; Ryan D. Hesse; Lewis Vaughan; Ondi L. Crino; Chloe N. Roberts; Xanthe Venn; Jordan K. Matley

doi:10.1071/WR25009

RESEARCH ARTICLE (Open Access)

Previous Next Contents Vol 52(8)

Are sutures a pathway to infection? A multidisciplinary assessment of wound healing in sharks following internal acoustic tagging

Brittany Heath

^A , Charlie Huveneers

^A , Ryan D. Hesse ^B , Lewis Vaughan ^C , Ondi L. Crino ^C , Chloe N. Roberts ^A , Xanthe Venn

^D and Jordan K. Matley ^A ^*

+ Author Affiliations

- Author Affiliations

^A Southern Shark Ecology Group, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia. Email: brittany.heath@flinders.edu.au; charlie.huveneers@flinders.edu.au; chloe.roberts@flinders.edu.au

^B Flinders Accelerator For Microbiome Exploration, College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia. Email: ryan.hesse@flinders.edu.au

^C College of Science and Engineering, Flinders University, Adelaide, SA, Australia. Email: lewis.vaughan@flinders.edu.au; ondi.crino@flinders.edu.au

^D Future Industries Institute, University of South Australia, Adelaide, SA, Australia. Email: xanthe.venn@unisa.edu.au

^* Correspondence to: jordan.matley@flinders.edu.au

Handling Editor: Aaron Wirsing

Wildlife Research 52, WR25009 https://doi.org/10.1071/WR25009

Submitted: 23 January 2025 Accepted: 16 July 2025 Published: 13 August 2025

© 2025 The Author(s) (or their employer(s)). Published by CSIRO Publishing. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC-ND)

Abstract

Context

Acoustic telemetry often involves a surgical method of internal tagging, wherein an animal is incised, a transmitter (hereafter referred to as a tag) internally inserted into the coelomic cavity, and the incision closed with sutures to aid wound closure, healing and tag retention. However, the act of tagging leads to additional handling and exposure to foreign materials (e.g. sutures), potentially increasing stress and the possibility of infection or fatality.

Aims

We assessed whether the absence of sutures would result in similar or different healing responses compared to incisions closed with sutures.

Methods

A 42-day captive study measured physical (i.e. macroscopic assessment of incision healing progress), bacterial colonisation (i.e. colony forming units) and blood chemistry (i.e. glucose and lactate concentrations) responses to the two internal acoustic tagging procedures (i.e. with and without sutures) in twelve Port Jackson sharks (Heterodontus portusjacksoni).

Key results

Macroscopic measurements (i.e. incision length and width) healed at different rates but overall healing was comparable between tagging procedures across the 42-day study. There was, however, a higher presence of inflammation and incisional swelling at sutured incisions and one case of visceral protrusion from a non-sutured incision. Sutured incisions had significantly more bacteria present than non-sutured incisions, despite the use of autoclaved surgical tools and surgeries performed in a controlled environment. Tag retention was 100% in both treatments.

Conclusion

Combined, these findings highlight that healing was broadly similar regardless of suturing and not suturing; however, sutures may offer a pathway to bacterial infection. Nevertheless, the potential lethal impact of visceral protrusion from non-sutured incisions is a critical concern; future work should examine whether smaller incisions and tags, or altering the position of tagging sites (e.g. further off the ventral midline) could limit protrusions, rendering non-suturing approaches as preferred under certain scenarios.

Implications

This research on wound healing contributes to our limited understanding of elasmobranch healing and tagging effects, which is an important consideration when minimising welfare impacts on animals used in research.

Keywords: acoustic tracking, animal welfare, bacteria, elasmobranchs, fish tracking, Heterodontus portusjacksoni, Port Jackson shark, suturing, tagging effects.

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