Infectious Disease Exposure in a Wild Turkey Population

Wild turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) populations exist in 42 states, and this bird is considered the major native game bird of North America (10). There are reports on the occurrence of disease in wild turkeys (1,5,8,12); however, no quantitative data exist on the prevalence and significance of infectious disease to wild turkeys (10). The only published accounts of infectious disease in the Rio Grande race of wild turkeys (M. gallopavo intermedia) are by Hightower et al. (11), Thomas (18), and Glazener (10). Collectively, they report the presence of four species of lice, an infestation of scaley leg mites, ticks, tapeworms, blackhead, enterohepatitis, and fowl pox. As a result of the general lack in knowledge of diseases in the wild turkey, this serologic study was initiated to acquire information on the prevalence of infectious disease in an apparently healthy wild turkey population.