[2] Turkeypox, like all avipoxviruses, is transmitted either through skin contact or by arthropods (typically mosquitos) acting as mechanical vectors.

[3] Turkeypox virus was first reported in a turkey flock in New York by E.L. Burnett,[4] and may be identified by nodular proliferative skin lesions on the non-feathered parts of the body and in the fibrino-necrotic and proliferative lesions in the mucous membrane of the upper respiratory tract.

There are currently nine other species within this genus, all of which are viruses: Fowlpox, Juncopox, Mynahpox, Psittacinepox, Sparrowpox, Starlingpox, Pigeonpox, Canarypox, and Quailpox.

[6] This is in contrast to the more variable, terminally located genes that have been shown to encode a diverse array of proteins involved in host range restriction.

[7] After these early genes are transcribed and translated there is a second uncoating step in which the rest of the genome is released and exposed to the previously produced replications proteins.

[7][8] Late viral genes are now being transcribed (most encode for structural proteins, enzymes and transcriptions factors) and are then translated.

The immature virions mature through an unknown mechanism that may involve processing by the Golgi apparatus in the cell.