Interactions of Salmonella with macrophages have been studied in birds and, most extensively, in mammals. In these homeothermic animals, interactions between Salmonella and macrophages are characterized by the following processes. After macropinocytosis, spacious phagosomes are formed within the macrophage. Partial inhibition of phagosome-lysosome fusion and resistance to the formation of reactive oxygen species and reactive nitrogen intermediates enable the bacterium to survive and even multiply within the host macrophage. Eventually, Salmonella will induce apoptosis of the macrophage. In this study, interactions of peritoneal macrophages of the turtle Trachemys scripta scripta with Salmonella enterica serovar Muenchen were examined in vitro. Turtle macrophages were able to phagocytise Salmonella efficiently at both 30 and 37 degrees C. Exposure of macrophages to Salmonella induced the production of reactive oxygen species, which could be partially suppressed by adding the NADPH oxidase inhibitor diphenylene iodonium. Initially, most of the intracellular bacteria were killed. However, Salmonella proved to be able to persist and multiply inside turtle macrophages at both 30 and 37 degrees C for at least 48 h, despite the production of reactive nitrogen intermediates by inducible NO synthase. Salmonella infection of turtle macrophages killed the phagocytes at both 30 and 37 degrees C. These findings demonstrate that no obvious qualitative differences exist between macrophage-Salmonella interactions from homeothermic animals and from turtles. This indicates that other factors are responsible for the different course of Salmonella infections in homeothermic and poikilothermic hosts.