Oh, I am so sorry to hear that. It breaks my heart.
I am lucky because I have Dr. Luna in the next town over from me. I had a NPIP breeder call me to give me a 'heads up' that the birds she purchased from another NPIP breeder came up positive for MG. The positive birds were in the pen adjacent to the breeders of the chicks I purchased. So I contacted Dr. Luna (recommended from the Dept. of Ag.) to come and test. Wow, that lady set me straight. Long story short, my birds tested positive on the AGAR test. All of them. I was getting ready to depopulate, but Dr. Luna said to send the serum in for an HI test. AGAR/ELISA tests are more of a screening tool. HI/PCR tests are confirmation tests. (<-----read more expensive.) All came back negative. Talk about a loooong week. haha
What I learned while dealing with it all is that DENY is the word of dirty breeders. I was told that I couldn't prove it was never on my property before the birds came, that a bird can fly over and poop and give it to me, mice could transmit it....on and on. They refused to test their birds of course, even after I offered to pay for it. Unfortunately for them, I had just had my birds tested as I was attending my first swap as a vendor and did not want to bring disease in. So yes, if I had MG, I could prove where it came from. Nothing but crickets...this is how they operate, I threw a roadblock in the tirade. To this day the same dirty breeders still attend swaps here, along with other breeders that are MG/MS positive. The 'president' for the swaps knows they have it and still allows them to attend. Their excuse? "It is not a regulated disease in Oregon." Will it wipe your flock out? Yep. Will it kill your kid's favorite chicken(s)? Yep. But it is not regulated so they don't care. btw this same person claims to run "clean" swaps. No disease there, no way. DENY.
At any rate, that whole drama scene (all within the state of OR) jump started my passion for learning about mycoplasmas and the transmission of the disease, etc. I have been very fortunate with having the best poultry vet ever right there with me to get the facts, not opinions. I have grown comfortable enough to ask the hard questions. When you call a state vet's office, they will tell you that 90-95% of backyard flocks have mysoplasma. Ask them where they came up with that number, where are the results from any studies that they conducted within that particular state...crickets. lol
Just this last week a pretty big breeder in the US claims to have vaccinated all their breeder birds for MG. This is a month after claiming to be MG free. Now all their breeders are carriers.
I am lucky because I have Dr. Luna in the next town over from me. I had a NPIP breeder call me to give me a 'heads up' that the birds she purchased from another NPIP breeder came up positive for MG. The positive birds were in the pen adjacent to the breeders of the chicks I purchased. So I contacted Dr. Luna (recommended from the Dept. of Ag.) to come and test. Wow, that lady set me straight. Long story short, my birds tested positive on the AGAR test. All of them. I was getting ready to depopulate, but Dr. Luna said to send the serum in for an HI test. AGAR/ELISA tests are more of a screening tool. HI/PCR tests are confirmation tests. (<-----read more expensive.) All came back negative. Talk about a loooong week. haha
What I learned while dealing with it all is that DENY is the word of dirty breeders. I was told that I couldn't prove it was never on my property before the birds came, that a bird can fly over and poop and give it to me, mice could transmit it....on and on. They refused to test their birds of course, even after I offered to pay for it. Unfortunately for them, I had just had my birds tested as I was attending my first swap as a vendor and did not want to bring disease in. So yes, if I had MG, I could prove where it came from. Nothing but crickets...this is how they operate, I threw a roadblock in the tirade. To this day the same dirty breeders still attend swaps here, along with other breeders that are MG/MS positive. The 'president' for the swaps knows they have it and still allows them to attend. Their excuse? "It is not a regulated disease in Oregon." Will it wipe your flock out? Yep. Will it kill your kid's favorite chicken(s)? Yep. But it is not regulated so they don't care. btw this same person claims to run "clean" swaps. No disease there, no way. DENY.
At any rate, that whole drama scene (all within the state of OR) jump started my passion for learning about mycoplasmas and the transmission of the disease, etc. I have been very fortunate with having the best poultry vet ever right there with me to get the facts, not opinions. I have grown comfortable enough to ask the hard questions. When you call a state vet's office, they will tell you that 90-95% of backyard flocks have mysoplasma. Ask them where they came up with that number, where are the results from any studies that they conducted within that particular state...crickets. lol
Just this last week a pretty big breeder in the US claims to have vaccinated all their breeder birds for MG. This is a month after claiming to be MG free. Now all their breeders are carriers.