TRANSMISSIBLE viral proventriculitis (TVP) has been described sporadically in broiler chickens in the USA for decades. Clinically, this disease is characterised by impaired growth (‘runting’), poor feed conversion and limited mortality. Gross lesions are limited to enlargement and pallor of the proventriculus (Dormitorio and others 2007). In Europe, proventriculitis in broilers was reported in 1978 in the Netherlands, but its aetiology was not determined (Kouwenhoven and others 1978). In Spain, TVP was identified and associated with infectious bursal disease virus, but the aetiology could not be determined definitively (Grau-Roma and others 2010). TVP has never been reported in France. Several viruses, including birnavirus-like ones, …