What are the basic functions of drugs used for soft-shelled turtles?

There are many functions and effects of drugs used for soft-shelled turtles, but to summarise, they mainly act in the following three ways:

1. Inhibiting or killing pathogens.

At present, most drugs used for soft-shelled turtles have the effect of killing and inhibiting pathogens, such as antibacterial drugs like sulfonamides, furans, antibiotics and garlic, antifungal drugs like table salt, formalin, the Chinese herbal medicines gallnut and sweet flag, and antiparasitic drugs like copper sulfate, ammonia water and potassium permanganate. These drugs achieve the effect of killing pathogens through indirect means (such as sulfonamides, certain antibiotics, etc.) or direct means (such as potassium permanganate, copper sulfate, formalin, etc.).

2. Improving the farming environment.

They exert their effects mainly in the following three ways:

(1) Killing pathogens in the water body, such as bleaching powder, sodium dichloroisocyanurate, trichloroisocyanuric acid, etc.;

(2) Improving the water quality and bottom substrate of the soft-shelled turtle pond, such as quicklime, calcium peroxide, etc., which can increase the alkalinity of the pond and enhance the permeability of the pond bottom;

(3) Purifying the water quality of the soft-shelled turtle pond, such as zeolite, photosynthetic bacteria, nitrifying bacteria, etc. Most of these drugs play these three roles indirectly or directly.

3. Enhancing the soft-shelled turtle's own disease resistance. The functions of these drugs are shown in the following three aspects:

(1) Supplementing appropriate nutrients for the soft-shelled turtle, so that its metabolism is in the best state, such as vitamins, etc.;

(2) Stimulating the specific immune function of the soft-shelled turtle, such as injecting vaccines, so that the soft-shelled turtle has specific resistance to a certain disease;

(3) Enhancing the non-specific immune function of the soft-shelled turtle, such as certain immune activators, thereby mobilising the soft-shelled turtle's own non-specific defence factors such as complement, lysozyme, C-reactive protein, interferon and transferrin to resist disease.

These three functions of drugs used for soft-shelled turtles are not isolated; one function of a certain drug can affect the other two functions, for example, environment-improving drugs have an influence on both the inhibition and killing of pathogens and the enhancement of the soft-shelled turtle's own resistance; conversely, only when drugs with multiple functions act in coordination can the goal of controlling and eliminating soft-shelled turtle diseases ultimately be achieved.