Histopathology of a rhinotracheitis of turkey poults associated with adenoviruses.

Tissues from turkey poults with adenovirus-associated respiratory disease were examined for microscopic lesions. Histopathologic changes observed in tissue from poults submitted with clinical signs of severe respiratory disease ranged from an acute mucoid rhinotracheitis through a fibrinonecrotic tracheitis to a chronic polypoid tracheitis with squamous metaplasia of the tracheal epithelium. Clinically normal poults housed with poults that subsequently developed clinical signs of the disease rarely had basophilic intranuclear inclusions within the epithelial cells of nasal turbinates.