Two experiments were conducted with five gallinaceous and one passerine bird species to determine their responses to Turlock (TUR) virus inoculations. Inoculation of TUR strain 847-32 into bob whites, chukars, ring-necked pheasants, chickens, and Japanese quail did not produce detectable viremias. The first four species, however, did respond with neutralizing antibody. Inoculation of chickens with strain 69V-1095 resulted in a viremia which lasted 5 days and had a peak mean titer of 2.0 log10PFU per 0.2 ml of blood on the third day after infection. The observation that viremic birds exhibited no noticeable virus associated morbidity or mortality suggested that TUR virus does not have a detrimental effect on free ranging populations of the avian hosts studied during this investigation.
Author notes
Department of Veterinary Science, 115 Animal Industries Building, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, Pennsylvania 16802, USA.
Present address: Yale Arbovirus Research Unit, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yale University School of Medicine, 60 College Street, P.O. Box 3333, New Haven, Connecticut 06510, USA.
Vector-borne Diseases Division, Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control, Public Health Service, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, P.O. Box 2087, Fort Collins, Colorado 80522, USA.