EXPERIMENTAL REPRODUCTION OF A SPIKING MORTALITY SYNDROME OF TURKEYS

Two-day-old turkey poults were inoculated with either a chicken embryo homogenate used previously to produce spiking mortality syndrome in c hickens (the ''Oakwood Agent'') or an intestine-pancreas homogenate co llected from field turkeys with the syndrome known as spiking mortalit y of turkeys. Twelve days postinoculation, the mean plasma insulinlike growth factor-1 (IGF-1) level and mean body weights were significantl y depressed, and the mean plasma growth hormone level was significantl y elevated, in the poults receiving the turkey-derived homogenate (P l ess than or equal to 0.0003), as was previously reported in chickens w ith spiking mortality syndrome. The depression in plasma IGF-1 levels may explain the runting seen in poults that survive spiking mortality of turkeys in the held. Following a 4-hr fast and a brief cool water s praying, poults exhibited clinical signs indistinguishable from those of chicks with spiking mortality syndrome. However, plasma glucose lev els in the affected poults were within the normal range, unlike chicke ns with spiking mortality syndrome. Immunohistochemistry on formalin-f ixed intestines, ceca, and bursae produced positive staining using an arenavirus antibody in epithelial cells of poults inoculated with the turkey homogenate and those inoculated with the Oakwood Agent. Tissues of uninoculated controls were negative. Poults inoculated with the Oa kwood Agent did not show noticeable disease.