Isolation and characterization of viruses from natural outbreaks of reticuloendotheliosis in turkeys.

We have described the in vitro isolation of type-C RNA viruses from two outbreaks of a fatal neoplastic disease in turkeys we diagnosed as reticuloendotheliosis. The virus had a density of 1.16 g/ml in sucrose gradients, had a DNA polymerase capable of using both endogenous and exogenous (synthetic) templates, and was infectious in vitro for turkey and chick cells. The culture-propagated virus was oncogenic for turkeys. The virus isolates were unrelated to avian leukosis virus and antigenically identical to reticuloendotheliosis virus (REV) strain T. Thus our studies suggested that REV is a causative agent of naturally occurring, fatal leukosis in turkeys.