Turtles are not poisonous in the sense of delivering poison to a victim as they lack teeth or fangs that would enable them to do so. They do not use venom for protection or predation as some reptiles such as the snake do. However there have been many reports of people becoming ill after eating turtles. Many have been known to carry diseases such as salmonella. While others such as the American Box turtle have been known to poison a human after being consumed. Interestingly enough, it is said that the poison at work is apparently from mushrooms that are harmful to humans, but have no effect on the turtles that eat them.
There have even been more serious cases where people have died from eating poisonous turtle meat. One such case involved the death of six and more than 90 others becoming seriously ill after attending a feast of critically endangered hawksbill turtle located on the remote Pacific island of Murilo. Four of the six among the dead were children.
An emergency response team from the Department of Health of the Federated States of Micronesia and the World Health Organization concluded that the deaths were caused by chelonitoxism. Chelonitoxism is a form of poisoning from the flesh of turtles. According to the nation’s health authorities there is no known antidote or medicine that can specifically treat chelonitoxism and children are more susceptible to the effects of the poison.
In any case, the best option may be to not eat turtles.
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