Newcastle disease conjunctivitis with subepithelial infiltrates.

An epidemic of Newcastle disease occurred in turkeys of Southern Utah in the late fall of I965. Several workers in intimate contact with the turkeys at the processing plant developed a follicular conjunctivitis subsequently identified as due to Newcastle disease virus. The typical clinical findings and rise in haemagglutinin-inhibition titre indicated that the infection was acquired from the turkeys during the processing. Newcastle disease conjunctivitis in humans is usually a moderately severe follicular conjunctivitis with involvement of the preauricular nodes. The cornea is rarely affected (Allen, Burns, Gingrich, Givner, Key, Kimura, and Thygeson, I963; Allen, I964; Trott and Pilsworth, I965), although superficial infiltrates and epithelial staining have been reported (Keeney and Hunter, 1950; Jones, i962). To our knowledge, subepithelial infiltrates have not previously been described.