Marek's disease

[ mar-iks, mahr- ]

noun

, Veterinary Pathology.

1. a contagious cancerous disease of poultry, caused by a herpesvirus and characterized by proliferation of lymphoid cells and paralysis of a limb or the neck.

Word History and Origins

Origin of Marek's disease¹

After Hungarian veterinarian József Marek (1868–1952), who described it in 1907