Experimental infection of specific-pathogen-free turkey poults with single and combined enterovirus and group A rotavirus.

This study was designed to investigate the effects of orally administered single and combined enterovirus and group A rotavirus in specific-pathogen-free poults of different ages. Clinical signs, body-weight gain, D-xylose absorption, and morphometric analysis revealed that poults given the combined enterovirus/rotavirus inoculum were more severely affected than poults that received either inoculum alone. The poults developed a malabsorption syndrome early in the disease process, but by day 8 postinoculation poults had regained normal intestinal absorptive capacity. Poults inoculated with enterovirus alone at 2 and 3 weeks of age were more severely affected, as shown by some of the parameters measured, than those inoculated at 3 days of age.