Naturally occurring reticuloendotheliosis in turkeys: transmission.

This report describes the natural occurrence and experimental transmission of reticuloendotheliosis in a turkey flock. In the naturally affected turkeys, lesions were present in the liver, spleen, heart, intestines, and peripheral nerves, and were composed mainly of lymphoreticular cells. The disease was experimentally reproduced in turkey poults with cellfree tissue extracts of infected birds. A type-C RNA virus similar to reticuloendotheliosis virus (strain T) was present in the tissues of turkey poults experimentally inoculated. This virus was unrelated to the type-C RNA viruses of the avian leukosis sarcoma complex.