The University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine

Georgia Veterinary Scholar Program

2003 Scholars

Georgia Veterinary Scholar	Faculty Mentor

Karinda Elliot University of Georgia Class of 2006	Dr. Mark Jackwood

Determining the Potential of Turkey Coronavirus (TCV) to be Egg Transmitted

Coronaviruses are a group of enveloped positive-stranded RNA viruses that cause highly contagious diseases in humans and domestic animals. Coronaviral enteritis effects turkeys of all ages and is characterized by weight loss, inappetence, and wet droppings. Thus coronaviral enteritis can cause enormous economic losses to the commercial turkey industry and consequently is an extremely important disease to the poultry industry. It has been our experience that turkey poults as young as one day of age can be infected with this virus. It has yet to be determined whether the source of this infection is from the environment or from vertical transmission from the hen to the egg. Thus the purpose of this study is to determine if TCV can be egg transmitted. This study was performed by inoculating specific pathogen free turkey eggs with TCV at Day 0 of incubation. The eggs were then tested for the presence of the virus at 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, and 28 days post-inoculation using RT-PCR. Clinical signs and mortality of the embryos was noted. The virus was detected at all sampling days, however no embryos hatched, including the controls indicating a possible problem with the incubator. Further, commercial turkey eggs were tested for the presence of the virus using RT-PCR and TCV was detected in 10% of the eggs. Thus our results suggest that turkey coronavirus may be egg transmitted, however the results are not absolutely definitive and further research is needed.