[Pathogenesis of neural lesions in Marek's disease. II. Transmission of neural lesions by spleen cells from ill donors (author's transl) ].

Viable spleen lymphocytes of 13 chickens with clinical and histological signs of Marek's disease were transferred by intravenous injection to 46 chickens 4-10 days old, X-rayed 24 hours before inoculation. Histologically Marek-like neural lesions were almost regularly observed in the chickens after 6-14 days. Chickens having received destroyed spleen lymphocytes of Marek-donors were free of nerve infiltrations. There were also no neural lesions detectable within 14 days after application of pathogenic Marek's disease virus alone, or in combination with viable spleen cells from healthy donors immunized against Marek's disease. These results exclude that the formation of neural lesions 6-14 days following the spleen cell transfer is solely induced by the virus.