Technical Abstract: In the fall of 1999, mosquito-transmitted West Nile virus (WNV) was isolated during an outbreak of neurologic disease in humans, horses, and wild and zoological birds in the northeast USA. Turkeys could be a potential reservoir for WNV because of high density turkey farming and the presence of large wild turkey populations in the eastern seaboard of the U.S.A. Little is known about the pathogenicity of WNV in domestic or wild turkeys. Specific-pathogen-free 3-week-old turkeys were inoculated subcutaneously with WNV. No clinical signs were observed in the turkeys over the 21 days of the experiment, but one turkey died abruptly on 8 days post-inoculation (DPI). Many turkeys developed viremia between 2 and 10 DPI, but the average level of virus was very low, less than needed to efficiently infect mosquitos. Low levels of WNV were detected in feces on 4 and 7 DPI, but no virus was isolated from oropharyngeal swabs. WNV was not transmitted from WNV-inoculated to contact-exposed turkeys. All WNV-inoculated poults seroconverted on 7 DPI. In the turkey that died, WNV was not isolated from intestine, myocardium, brain, kidney or cloacal and oropharyngeal swabs, but sparse viral antigen was demonstrated by immunohistochemistry in the heart and spleen. These data suggest WNV lacks the potential to be a major new disease of turkeys, and turkeys will not be a significant amplifying host for infecting mosquitos.