A Possible Occurrence of Avian Leukosis in the Wild Turkey

Abstract

In June of 1957 a complete skeleton of a wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) was found approximately 10 miles north of Tallahassee in Leon County, Florida. The bones of this bird showed abnormal calcium deposits to an extensive degree (Fig. 1). The skeleton was mailed to Dr. A. O. Haugen, Leader of the Cooperative Wildlife Research Unit, Auburn, Alabama, for examination by the School of Veterinary Medicine at the Alabama Polytechnic Institute. Dr. W. E. Ribelin carefully examined the skeleton by radiographs and other means and concluded that the pathologic condition of the skeleton probably represents an atypical type of the osteopetrotic form of avian leukosis. It is atypical in that the metatarsi are not involved, nor is there any encroachment upon the cortex or marrow cavity of the bone. Dr. Ribelin conjectures that perhaps this may be the characteristic response of the wild turkey to this disease. The disease essentially is one of diffuse periosteal proliferation and ossification affecting most all of the long bones of the body as well as the pelvis. The possibility occurs that, had the disease affected the metatarsi as it typically does in domestic poultry, the turkey would have been so handicapped that it would have been destroyed by predators long before it reached the advanced stage indicated in Fig. 1. The skeleton was found intact, the bird apparently having died as a result of the osteopetrotic form of avian leukosis.