SUMMARY
Turkey arthritis reoviruses impose a great threat to commercial turkeys with induction of tenosynovitis/arthritis and hepatitis, which has resulted in substantial economic losses. Emergence of turkey hepatitis reovirus was reported in 2019 and caused mortalities among young poults. We investigated a case of turkey hepatitis reovirus infection in a turkey flock and followed that flock until marketing age to evaluate the influence of infection on flock performance. The infected flock showed tenosynovitis with a negative influence on the flock performance, including reduction in the average daily weight gain and average marketing weight. Reovirus was isolated from the liver of the infected flocks and later, reovirus was isolated from tendons of birds in the same flock. The whole-genome sequencing and sequence analysis of both hepatic and arthritic isolates revealed that they are closely related. We additionally compared this flock performance with other flocks infected with turkey arthritis reovirus, and genomic comparison was established. Our field investigation showed that turkey hepatitis reovirus can induce tenosynovitis and has a greater impact on flock performance when compared with the impact of turkey arthritis reovirus.