There was speculation that chicken-born diseases were introduced into the ocellated turkey population by domestic poultry.

Ocellated turkey numbers were perceived to have crashed in a large forest area in Belize where they were previously common.

As hunting pressure in the area did not seem sufficient to explain their loss, there was speculation that one or another chicken-born diseases may have been introduced into the population by domestic poultry. Wild ocellated turkeys will occasionally come in and feed with flocks of barnyard chickens on the more remote farms in Belize if they are unmolested.

It was thought that this may prove more fatal for the species than uncontrolled hunting, but these speculations have never been substantiated.

^{• Image | © Roberto González, Some Rights Reserved (CC BY 2.0)
• Sources | (BirdLife International, 2017; Miller & Miller, 2007; Weyer, 1983)}

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