The presence is reported of an RNA-instructed DNA polymerase in visna virus, the causative agent of a "slow" neurological disease in sheep. The product synthesized by the RNA-directed reaction has been shown to be a DNA heteropolymer by the following criteria: synthesis requires the presence of all four deoxyriboside triphosphates; the product is resistant to ribonuclease and alkali but is degraded by DNase; and the product has a density of 1.420 in Cs(2)SO(4) solution, characteristic of DNA.Visna virions, like those of the oncogenic RNA viruses, contain DNA polymerase activities that respond to a variety of double-stranded DNAs and to synthetic DNA.RNA hybrids.