Mareks Vaccine

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Agree with chookaholic. If the person was vaccinating at home and shipping chicks of mixed ages, I would think they were not properly vaccinated. They were clearly infected with Marek's before they have developed immunity. Perhaps they were not vaccinated at all.

My first batch of chicks that died from Marek's initially showed coccidia like signs of illness. I treated them with Corid, followed by vitamins, and they were better for about 4 or 5 weeks before becoming sick again and dying from Marek's.

Unfortunately there are shady people out there. Next time get chicks from a hatchery that are properly vaccinated, or get older birds that are already immune.
 
I live in southwestern Colorado, and there are lots of eagles, hawks, falcons, herons and various birds that live in our area. We are getting a flock of 18 hens next spring. I am debating whether or not I should vaccinate them for Marek's Disease??

Please let me know what you think??

Kiera
 
DurangoChickens said:
I live in southwestern Colorado, and there are lots of eagles, hawks, falcons, herons and various birds that live in our area. We are getting a flock of 18 hens next spring. I am debating whether or not I should vaccinate them for Marek's Disease??

Please let me know what you think??

Kiera
Click to expand...
If you have the option, I would recommend doing it. It doesn't affect them negatively to have it done, and it isn't that expensive.
 
DurangoChickens,
If you're getting a flock of hens, I don't know that it would be worth your time as they would most likely have already been exposed to Merek's. If you're getting newly hatched babies, I would say... most definitely! My flock has Merek's and I had no problems until I brought home some chicks from a poultry swap ( I fully regret the poultry swap now... but I didn't know any better at the time). I know beyond a doubt that it came from those chicks. It's hard to watch half of your flock get sick and die or have to cull them to keep them from suffering.

I now only order chicks and have them vaccinated at the hatchery. I still have one out of every 25 to get sick, but it's a much lower % than not vaccinating. Once you have Merek's in your flock, you basically cannot get rid of it. I had a hen just hatch out only 1 baby 3 weeks ago and I'm really hoping that it will have some resistance to the disease.

Good Luck!
 
DurangoChickens said:
I live in southwestern Colorado, and there are lots of eagles, hawks, falcons, herons and various birds that live in our area. We are getting a flock of 18 hens next spring. I am debating whether or not I should vaccinate them for Marek's Disease??

Please let me know what you think??

Kiera
Click to expand...
DurangoChickens,
If you're getting a flock of hens, I don't know that it would be worth your time as they would most likely have already been exposed to Merek's. If you're getting newly hatched babies, I would say... most definitely! My flock has Merek's and I had no problems until I brought home some chicks from a poultry swap ( I fully regret the poultry swap now... but I didn't know any better at the time). I know beyond a doubt that it came from those chicks. It's hard to watch half of your flock get sick and die or have to cull them to keep them from suffering.

I now only order chicks and have them vaccinated at the hatchery. I still have one out of every 25 to get sick, but it's a much lower % than not vaccinating. Once you have Merek's in your flock, you basically cannot get rid of it. I had a hen just hatch out only 1 baby 3 weeks ago and I'm really hoping that it will have some resistance to the disease.

Good Luck!
 
horsejody said:
There has been discussion on another board regarding Mareks. I think there is a lot of misinfortion out there. I know people on this board have discussed it also. Yesterday, I e-mailed Dr. Fulton at MSU. He specializes in poultry. He was very helpful when we were hit with Mareks last year. This is
what I asked him:

Last year I had a bird with Mareks. You
very kindly advised me about her health issues via
e-mail. I thank you very much for that. I would like
to ask you about vaccinations. I hatched 23 chicks
this year in an incubator and vaccinated all for
Mareks. I have poultry acquaintances that are sure
that having these chicks vaccinated will infect any
bird they ever come in contact with for the rest of
their lives. I believe it is so predoninate in the
environment that I would be crazy not to vaccinate.
As an expert, would you please tell me if these
vaccinated chicks will turn out to be "Typhoid
Mary's." Would you please tell me what the risks of
vaccination are and if vaccinated birds are a real
threat to others?
Thank You For Your Time

He very kindly sent me a prompt response. This is what he said:

Dear Jody:

I understand your and your poultry pal's concerns but you are right in your thinking about Marek's disease. Marek's disease virus is everywhere. In fact, the vaccination of poultry for Marek's disease is a race to see which virus is going to win in the bird.....the vaccine virus or the disease causing virus. While it is true that Marek's disease vaccinated birds are infected with the vaccine virus for life,
I am not aware of them shedding the vaccine virus. The good news is that the vaccine viruses do not cause disease so your chickens are safe and not "Typhoid Marys." The other vaccines used in poultry do not cause
"Typhoid Marys" except for almost all vaccines used to protect against Infectious Laryngotracheitis. Chickens vaccinated with those vaccines can shed the vaccine virus and the vaccine virus will make non-vaccinated chickens sick.

As for vaccinating your chickens for other diseases, I only recommend vaccinating chickens against diseases you have had or that are in your area. In most cases, that only includes fowl pox. Please note that chicken pox is a human disease and not a chicken disease. The virus that causes chicken pox in humans does not cause disease in chickens
nor do humans get it from chickens.

Hope this helps,

R. M. Fulton, D.V.M., Ph.D.



There is a lot of misinformation out there on the web regarding vaccinations and Mareks. People get the effects of one vaccine confused with another, etc. If birds vaccinated for Mareks are so contagious, why are they allowed in the shows? The virus in the Mareks vaccine is not the same one that causes the disease. It is just similar enough to create immunity. We all should check our sources regarding such things before passing on misinformation. Last year when my flock had an issue with Mareks, I contacted local vets and vets at poultry departments of universities with ag departments.
They all told me the same thing. And all of the university people told me that Dr Fulton was the foremost authority on it. I think I can trust my sources.

I hope that Dr. Fultons response can help people on this board as well as the other forum I posted it on.
Click to expand...

Great post thanks, still looking for info if broody hen will steal anothers babies.
 
This sure puts a damper on placing new chicks under a broody hen. Because they would have to be quarantined first. I don't know if she would accept them at 10 days old? My vet, whom just checked my Silkie said absolutely vaccinate.
 
Thank you, Little Fuzzy, for posting the above. It does not explain my observations, though. I do know that in the past, the turkey version of the Mareks virus was used to vaccinate chickens and then the vaccinated birds did not pose a risk to other unvaccinated stock.

The poultry industry has come up with more and more potent vaccines - and this is well documented - and these are derived from the poultry version of the Mareks virus. These hens have the potential to infect other birds. However, as backyard breeders who don't vacciate can only ever breed from birds that do not fall victim to Mareks at a young age, birds with natural immunity are the result. These are not endangered by vaccinated birds. Those that are will die anyway and over time they will die out.

Regarding putting chicks under a hen: I'd do it, hen raised chicks generally are much healthier than brooder raised chicks. Not all chicks will get it anyway and, unless you have kept the chicks in a pathogen free environment all the time, they will have been exposed to Mareks already.

Regarding hens with hawks - I'd be more inclined to have them in a fully enclosed run than vaccination. Hawks will kill and eat them if they can - the hawks won't give them Mareks.
 
Little Fuzzy said:
This sure puts a damper on placing new chicks under a broody hen. Because they would have to be quarantined first. I don't know if she would accept them at 10 days old? My vet, whom just checked my Silkie said absolutely vaccinate.
Click to expand...
I let broody hens raise vaccinated chicks starting at one day old. I put them in a "clean' part of the yard where the carrier birds are not housed. I feel a bit like I'm playing Russian Roulette with the chicks knowing they could come into contact with the virus before they are immune. The good news is that I've successfully grown out broody-raised chicks; some of them are 2 years old now. There have been a couple of chicks that have come down with limb paralysis around two months of age, but then they recovered and a still going strong. I keep the broody hen and chicks separated from the flock for at least 3 weeks, and I make sure to buy new bedding and not use any equipment from the regular coop in the broody coop.
 

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