Cooperative state-federal turkey ornithosis task force, Texas, 1974

Ornithosis was suggested by a routine analysis of tissue specimens from Texas turkey flocks submitted to the Texas A&M University Poultry Disease Laboratory at Gonzales on April 30, 1974, and of subsequent specimens from four additional flocks. Subsequently, illness in humans at turkey processing plants in Texas, Nebraska, and Missouri, implicating turkeys from Texas, was confirmed as ornithosis in July 1974; and, associated with this outbreak, ornithosis was suspected as the cause of the death of one human. Action was taken by state and federal poultry disease control and inspection officials, public health agencies, and the turkey industry in Texas.