Group I avian adenovirus and avian adeno-associated virus in turkey poultswith inclusion body hepatitis

Adenoviral inclusion body hepatitis (IBH) is rare in turkeys. Avian adenovi rus group I and avian adeno-associated virus were isolated from the liver a nd pooled intestinal samples from 4-week-old turkey poults on two different ranches experiencing increased mortality. Grossly, a few birds from each r anch had a slightly enlarged liver with white foci of necrosis randomly sca ttered throughout. Microscopically, there was coagulative necrosis of hepat ocytes with infiltration of a mixed population of inflammatory cells compos ed of lymphocytes, plasma cells, heterophils, and macrophages. In these liv ers, there were numerous basophilic intranuclear inclusion bodies in the he patocytes. Transmission electron microscopy of the liver revealed 70 to 75 nm viral particles with icosahedral morphology consistent with adenovirus s cattered throughout the nucleus of hepatocytes. All of the birds were serol ogically negative for haemorrhagic enteritis virus infection. Of some 5000 submissions over a 12-year period of turkey poults aged between 1 day and 1 0 weeks, only two single birds within two submissions had IBH.