Isolation ofPlasmodium circumflexumfrom wild guineafowl(Numida meleagris)and the experimental infection in domestic poultry

A strain of Plasmodium circumflexum isolated from wild guineafowl was highly pathogenic to turkeys. Mortality in turkeys occurred in a biphasic pattern--at the peak of parasitaemia associated with severe anaemia and 7 to 18 days afer the peak associated with the presence of exoerythrocytic schizonts in the brain capillaries. In the acute cases the pathology findings were anaemia, icterus and splenomegaly; in the subacute cases severe splenomegaly, right ventricular hypertrophy and multifocal interstitial myocarditis.