The Florida manatee, Trichechus manatus latirostris, is a subspecies of the West Indian manatee that is found throughout many of Florida’s coastal waterways. They are often rescued for many reasons causing them to end up in acute care rehabilitation facilities. Manatees in rehabilitation are mainly fed romaine lettuce (Cos spp.) which has a nutritional provide that is contrary to natural seagrass species foraged upon by wild manatees. While the soluble carbohydrates present in romaine may be ideal for injured and convalescing manatees, long- term feeding of this diet has led to health issues such as Type 2 diabetes. The excessive fat deposition has generated concerns that the fats being stored by manatees may contribute to a whole fat inflammatory state not experienced by wild manatees.

Fatty acids are a potentially useful biomarker to better understand inflammation status. This project measured fatty acid profiles in serum samples from individual manatees in rehabilitation (n = 23). The samples were paired from entry and release, or in the case of three long term residents, before and after a diet change. Manatees were placed into four different groups depending on their reason for intake to further understand the impact of a lettuce diet on fatty acid profiles. Although sample size and residency time varied, significant changes in eight fatty acids were detected using paired t-tests. Our results indicate that the lettuce-based diet provided to rehabilitated Florida manatees has a potential negative impact on their inflammatory profiles and appears to be dependent upon the time fed romaine