The lymphoproliferative disease virus of turkeys represents a distinct class of avian type-C retrovirus.

The lymphoproliferative disease virus of turkeys (LPDV) is the etiological agent of a rapidly developing lymphoproliferative process in turkeys. To better understand the genetic relationships of LPDV to other retroviruses we determined the nucleotide sequence of its pol gene. Comparative computer analyses of the deduced amino acid sequences of the reverse transcriptase and integrase domains within pol established that LPDV represents a distinct class of avian retroviruses that is most closely related to the avian leukemia-sarcoma viruses.