Marek’s Disease Virus (MDV) is a chicken
alphaherpesvirus that causes paralysis, chronic wasting,
blindness, and fatal lymphoma development in infected,
susceptible host birds. This disease and its protective
vaccines are highly relevant research targets, given their
enormous impact within the poultry industry. Further,
Marek’s disease (MD) serves as a valuable model for
the investigation of oncogenic viruses and herpesvirus
patterns of viral latency and persistence—as pertinent
to human health as to poultry health. The objectives
of this article are to review MDV interactions with its
host from a variety of genomic, molecular, and cellular perspectives. In particular, we focus on cytogenetic
studies, which precisely assess the physical status of
the MDV genome in the context of the chicken host
genome. Combined, the cytogenetic and genomic research
indicates that MDV-host genome interactions,
specifically integration of the virus into the host telomeres,
is a key feature of the virus life cycle, contributing
to the viral achievement of latency, transformation, and
reactivation of lytic replication. We present a model
that outlines the variety of virus-host interactions, at
the multiple levels, and with regard to the disease
states.