Comparative pathogenesis of turkey reoviruses

Turkey reoviruses have been implicated in multiple disease syndromes resulting in significant economic losses to the turkey industry. It has been known for decades that turkey enteric reovirus (TERV) is involved in poult enteritis complex, but turkey arthritis reovirus (TARV), the causative agent of tenosynovitis in turkeys, emerged in 2011. In 2019, we isolated reovirus from several cases of hepatitis in turkeys and tentatively named it turkey hepatitis reovirus (THRV). The comparative pathogenesis of these viruses, and correlation with their genetic make-up (if any), is not known. In this study, we inoculated nine groups of 1-week-old turkey poults with two THRV, five TARV and two TERV via oral route. A tenth group served as a negative control. A subset of birds from each group was euthanised at 3, 5, 7, 14, 21, and 28 days post-inoculation (dpi). Tissues were collected for histology and real-time RT–PCR. All nine viruses were found to be enterotropic; the virus gene copy number in the intestine reached a peak at 5 dpi followed by a sharp decline at 7 dpi. All viruses caused a significant decline in body weight gain of birds as compared to the negative control group. Both TARV and THRV strains replicated in tendons and produced histologic lesions consistent with tenosynovitis. Hepatic lesions were produced by THRV only and the virus was re-isolated from liver and spleen of inoculated birds fulfilling Koch’s postulates. The results of this study should be helpful in facilitating diagnosis and designing future mitigation plans.