Moving Forward- Breeding for Resistance to Marek's Disease

[abraga]

Unfortunately..i have mareks in my birds to. I got chicks last year from what I thought was a " good" breeder. They got sick 1st. I have cemani, serama and brahma. I had put so much money, time, effort into my coops and birds. It was devastating. I think I have a lighter strain. Hits most of my birds around 5 mo. Old. I have had some success using coidal silver and st. John's wort, especially if i catch it early. I also give them vitamins, probiotics and a concoction of herbal tintures that have anti- viral properties. I notice at the onset that some of my birds will start to spend more time "at rest". That's my 1st clue. If I see one laying down more than usual, or detect a slight gait abnormality, iI isolate them and start treatment. I've saved several with this method. Time will tell how effective these treatments work long term.We built the sick ones that survive a coop at the far end of our place. I also clean my coops and spray them down with zircon-s every week. I do put a few down that are crippled or don't do well. I'm opting to breed for resistance. I do have a few 3rd generation chicks..so it will be interesting to see how they do.

 

[MissLavender]

Ooooh, I'm totally following this thread! I just had a bird come up with leg weakness, lack of balance, I'm thinking it might be Marek's.

 

[microchick]

Welcome. Sorry that you are experiencing problems but rest assured that you are not alone.

This is my first surviving venture into breeding for resistance.

This past spring, I purchased 5 Egyptian Fayoumis. One Rooster, 4 pullets. They are thriving. I wasn't planning to set any eggs from them until next year but one accidentally found it's way under a broody hen and voila! A chick was hatched!

His sire is a Amish barnyard bantam cross. Mom a EF pullet. Sadly, his sire died not long after the chick hatched. As he was only two years old, I suspect he was my lone Marek's victim this spring and summer.

After doing a lot of soul searching I made the decision this spring to cull what was left of my original flock. They were not laying much any more. The second generational survival rate was horrible and I couldn't coax them out to free range so other than them sticking around to shed Marek's laced dander, they went to freezer camp.

I plan to add more Fayoumis this spring. They aren't cuddly friendly birds but by golly, they are Marek's resistant and that's all that matters to me! Hopefully "TJ" will be the first of many crosses that will genetically strengthen my barnyard mixes that are showing resistance.

 

[drumstick diva]

There is/was a lady from Alberta, Canada that said she had Mareks in her flock and bred it out of her birds. Tara has/had a thread called, I believe "J'est Another Bird in Pair A Dice." She moved on to Facebook but, her old thread should still be on BYC. I think her last post was around 12-18-18.

I believe her last name was Higgins. or Wiggins. Give me a break, I am old. She bred Chanticleer chickens with the flattest of combs to prevent frost bite, she also had ducks, geese, hair sheep, I think a pair of black swans, Australian Cattle dogs.

I would NEVER go to FB but, I miss her wisdom and wit and wish she would come back here.
I may be mistaken (it wouldn't be the first time) but I believe she and Microchick stay in touch.

 

[seminolewind]

Howdy! I have read nothing new on Marek's the past few years. I do know that I would still try everything I could hoping it's something else. I have also found that after a year or so , exposed but not symptomatic (Leg paralysis) chickens of mine have suppressed immune systems and very easy to be sick from common bacteria, the big one being cocci or enteritis or e. coli. Right or wrong, but last ditch effort I treat with any antibiotic I have on hand and an anticoccidial. If feel I have nothing to lose when the alternative is death.

My intro to Marek's was hatching 10 perfectly beautiful hatched chicks that at 6-8 weeks all got paralysis and had to be euthanized one by one. Boy did I cry buckets. That was the way way bad end. The better end was a 6 week Polish that got paralysis and I put her in the garage because I just could not cull her. She had quite an appetite. Eventually I moved her to my bedroom. She would take naps with me. Still quite an appetite. She slowly appeared to get better. Eventually my hubs and I would practice walking from him to me like you do with a toddler. Finally she went back with the flock. She died 8 yrs old , euthanized due to leg to paralysis and not able to feed. At 8 years old I don't know why she had paralysis. But she gave me Joy for 8 years. I still miss her badly.

I've had just about every scenario in between. I find the best way to protect my flock is vaccination and also sending chickens with unknown death to a lab for a necropsy. So if you think it's Marek's , send it to a state animal disease lab for a necropsy (not the vet) and find out for sure. If you buy chicks from anywhere other than the hatchery, or hatched at home, you do risk getting Marek's (keeping a closed flock). My flock was introduced by a young hen I bought from a breeder! The only bird I ever ever bought outside my "closed" flock.

This is my midnight ramble, LOL. If it helps one person, my ramble was worth rambling.

 

[34Fam]

I'm going to add my little bit here so I can keep up with this. I have had what I feel is marecks in my tolbunt polish and my spitzhauben. As young juveniles I have had some start showing signs of staggering, progressing to sitting on the hocks and I added B complex crushed up to their food and gave them liquid baby vitamins without iron. Happily they recovered and I though great....until they got to POL then return of inability to walk then to stand and eventually to eat. THey all seemed to aim at the food but would come up empty beaked. I wish I had marked the ones who survived to see if they were the ones to later succumb. I have other birds...seramas, modern games, silkies, golden laced polish, o shamos, Madagascar, breda, french copper marans.....a good mix. Some pure bred some back yard birds...but the only ones that have had this have been the tolbunt (from greenfire) and the spitzhaubens (from greenfire). Not saying the problem is them....just that that is where they came from. The breda came from there and are and have been just fine. I think it may be a breed thing. I am about to start collecting tolbunt eggs for a friend and it will be interesting to see how those hatches go.

We got day old Marans from Greenfire.... Our flock got Mereks too.

 

[Cazook]

are chickens suffering from mareks still edible?

 

[McKeownkd]

Thank you everyone for this thread! New chicken mom, and just a few weeks ago I had my first Marek's fatality. She was an 8 mos old Lavender Orpington. Nursed her by hand for 2 weeks before she succumbed. Nobody could diagnose her while alive, not the vet nor the NJ Dept of Animal Health Services who came out. But a necropsy proved that she had MArek's and Cocci, though she did not have any tumors. My other 5 do not have any symptoms. They were all vaccinated and I got them from a local farm that is NPIP certified.
This thread has helped a lot with trying to move forward after this in a way that keeps my remaining hens as healthy as possible.

I was really looking forward to hatching some chicks under a broody hen this spring but if I understand correctly, even if my day old chicks are vaccinated my assumption is they would be exposed to a Marek's positive environment before it takes effect, thus leaving them essentially as unvaccinated chickens and very prone to falling ill from Marek's in the future.
Can someone confirm if that's the correct way of thinking? I really didn't want to do the whole brooder experience again.
Thanks!
Katie

 

[6_year_Eer]

Hello there, I too have marek’s disease in my flock now. It’s awful but I cannot see culling the rest of my asymptomatic flock and waiting years for the residual dander/ disease to fade, in order to (theoretically) safely start over. I think it came into my flock from a breeder I had bought 5 pullets from in an attempt to add breed variety. Three of those five died within 1-2 months of introduction, the rest in 3-4 months. During this same time I had all of my newly hatched birds from the previous summer die or show signs of sickness and need to be culled.. 7 of the 8 from that hatch died by the time of reaching maturity and egg laying. It basically wiped out half of my flock in 6 or so months. So far the rest of the flock have held up well and I have one hen that would be 2nd generation left. I intend to give it my best shot to breed for resistance, but I also thought I’d give the following a shot...

Does anyone on this thread feel that they have reached a stabile point within their flock at breeding for resistance and has fertile eggs they would be willing to sell or ship. I figure it would be worth a shot to bring in fresh hatches and some new genentics into a flock with some Marek’s resistance already bred.

I know it’s a big ask and I hope it’s not against the rules. Would anyone want to give it a try? I would happily return the favor. If I were to get a next generation hatch with a high survival rate I’d be happy to reciprocate and send out fertile eggs to others that would like to try this.

I would certainly be willing to compensate someone for shipping and a fair price for fertile eggs. Maybe someone has already tried this? Let me know if there anyone interested and if for some reason this is not allowed l, feel free to take my post down. I just want to see if we can help each other kick start resistance in our flocks.

Thank you everyone for your knowledge you’ve shared up to this point.

 

[feather13]

are chickens suffering from mareks still edible?

We have never eaten any of our Marek's infected chickens, but I don't think I would. Here's a post from a few years ago that might be interesting:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/can-you-eat-birds-that-have-mareks.738041/