Avian reticuloendotheliosis viruses: evolutionary linkage with mammalian type C retroviruses.

Reticuloendotheliosis viruses have been shown to be causative of tumors in a variety of avian species. The major structural protein of these non-genetically transmitted viruses is demonstrated to possess antigenic determinants common to those of all known mammalian type C viruses. These findings establish a mammalian origin for this oncogenic avian retrovirus group. None of the known mammalian type C virus groups demonstrated a closer immunological relationship to avian reticuloendotheliosis viruses. These results suggest that reticuloendotheliosis viruses have been non-genetically transmitted for a long period of evolution or that these viruses may have arisen by relatively recent infection of birds with an as yet undiscovered mammalian type C retrovirus.