Moving Forward- Breeding for Resistance to Marek's Disease

[feather13]

@microchick : I'm slowly learning as I go, too, but there doesn't seem to be much out there about how to live with Mareks. There's information on how to cull birds with it, veterinary science articles on what it is, and precautions to take to not get it. Your messages on BYC and your article have and will help those of us with it in our flocks to feel less alone (and to be very careful about where to get new birds). Really happy to hear you have three year old vaccinated chickens that are doing well!

How do you like your Egyptian Fayoumis? We got two with our McMurray order and I've been posting a lot about them recently. Wow... they are unlike anything we've ever had. I know chickens are the closest living relative to T-Rexes, but EFs are actual pterodactyls lol. They are the second loudest thing to Howler Monkeys I've ever had the (dis)pleasure of hearing and they are bonkers skittish. We free range our birds during the day and the EFs go into all the neighbors' yards (where they continue to scream), despite the fact that we have 6ft walls with a 10ft drop off on the other side. One of the EFs already got killed by a neighbor's dogs (the dogs bark all day, so it's not like she wasn't warned) and the other peer pressures the standard breed girls to hop over the wall with her. My daughters have named the EFs "Skinny Legends" because they're so bony. They're beautiful, resistant to Mareks, and fiercely independent (always a good trait in a girl!), but I wouldn't necessarily recommend them for suburban backyards unless you like your neighborhood to sound like Jurassic Park lol.

 

[microchick]

yeah, that pretty much describes EFs all right. I ordered 6 from Murray McM hatchery. 2 cockerels 4 hens. One cockerel didn't survive shipping and I lost one pullet last year to what I now suspect was a parasite load. They had been gorging on worms during the spring and I caught it too late that she had parasites. I checked all of mine and they were boney so I got out the wormer and dosed every screaming banshee after galloping after them for what seemed like hours.

I found it was easier to squirt the safeguard down their throats when they had their beaks open in mid shriek and got to be very good at jiggling them just enough to set them off then squirt and release. It worked. Everyone plumped right up. I remember lifting one of the little noise makers up and saying "I thought you were resistant to parasites!" evidently not when the diet is worms worms and more worms. So you might want to try worming them and see what happens.

As egg producers I'm pretty pleased with mine. They seem to lay better than advertised and I can over look them not being over cuddly and noisy....as long as they are Marek's resistant too!

Mine will eat out of my hand and my rooster, Tut is a character. Not overly aggressive, good with the hens. So I give them a 4.5 out 5 mainly due to their noisy attitudes and flightiness.

 

[Diannastarr]

Plus the survivors will usually live shorter lives and succumb to the secondary diseases of Marek's namely tumors.

I've had that happen to a beautiful rooster who was sweet and gentle with both the hens and humans. He was gone in the blink of an eye to tumors in his throat. He was just under two years old and never showed a reaction to the primary MD infection that most get when they are 9 weeks old. I had hopes he was going to be the 'one' who survived the disease as he was almost 2 but by the time I found his tumors (hidden in his thick hackle feathers and dangling big wattles) it was too late and I had to put him down.

Marek's will also affect the laying life of any surviving hen. Most have shorter laying lives and are more prone to reproductive problems/prolapses/cancers.

I've been working since December on an article for BYC chronicling my experiences with the disease in my flock. It's not a scientific or informative article. I could never compete with Nambroth's excellent article. It's just my attempt to show people that there is life as a chicken keeper after Marek's Disease hits your flock. I hope to have it done by spring. I'm doing rewrites now and working on illustrations then it is good to go.

exactly Never give up! Never surrender!...!!!!! never ever...!!! good post thanks i cant wait to read your experances sounds like a good read ..!! & with illustrations perfect...! well i try to give my birds the best of everykind of food live greens and fresh vegies grown in my garden , along with any thing i come byto help keep them in super health, thanks for all you wrote, all we can do is out best , but i forgot to say food is most importsnt to help in developing of any resistance, so fingers crossed we will get rid of that horror called Marek's, it will become a thing of the past..!! gosh sorry about you roo, i lost my favorite roo my darling Big Bird, he came to us named by the breeder Ghost..lol.. then he became Big Bird to us ..lol.. very sweet guy i found him dead one morning, broke my heart , here is his pic , a splish australorp roo , perfect temperment i still miss him. WE WILL all do our best & looking forward to the end of Marek's

 

[microchick]

Thank you @Diannastarr So sorry to hear about your rooster. I know how that goes. Found many just dead including a beautiful lavender orpington rooster who was just an amazing shade of blue lavender.

It would be nice if they found a cure that would end herpes infections all together. Maybe someday they will. Until then, we fight on.

 

[Sonya9]

I'm slowly learning as I go, too, but there doesn't seem to be much out there about how to live with Mareks.

I just posted info that you may find useful. Manage your flock to reduce or eliminate stress, herpes meds also appear to be very effective.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/mareks-my-flock.1444611/#post-23991783

 

[feather13]

@microchick : LOL... I loved reading about your Fayoumis. Thanks for the heads up about parasites. I'm definitely going to dose ours, although I'll probably need to do it at dusk because otherwise there's no way I could catch her. On another thread an Egyptian American chicken keeper was saying how their family eats EFs and I was like, "what?!?!...but they are just skin and bones." I thought that they were just naturally skinny since ours have been since we got them and all the photos on the web show them as small birds. They travel far and wide throughout the neighborhood, so who knows what they get into and eat. Maybe the parasites are what makes her look angry all the time lol (see photos).

Our remaining EF is also a good layer. I mean, she loves to get into the coop and scream at anyone else who happens to be in a nesting box she wants and she will sometimes double up in a box with another pullet, but otherwise lays pretty little cream eggs

 

[microchick]

LOL! My hens do the same thing. My barnyard crosses are very amiable when I reach under them to gather eggs but the first time I tried to reach under one of the Fayoumi girls she gave me a blood curdling shriek that had me jerking my hand back in surprise.

I'd definitely try the worming. Mine are sure death on any and all bugs they can find and earth worms can cause parasite overloads in the best of birds. Mine felt like skin and bones when I had a hen die off. My girls always felt thin also but after I safe guarded them they seemed to develop an acceptable amount of keel bone padding. I plan to reworm them again in May or June after the spring bug rush has a chance to die off.

 

[feather13]

I just posted info that you may find useful. Manage your flock to reduce or eliminate stress, herpes meds also appear to be very effective.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/mareks-my-flock.1444611/#post-23991783

Thank you!!! That thread and your posts are really helpful. I encourage anyone checking out this thread also pop on over there.

A quick question for clarification: Do you treat your flock with herpes medicine daily or just give it to those who are symptomatic for the period that they are symptomatic?

Thanks again to everyone in this Mareks support circle. There's so much great advice from BYC members that allows us to decide to cull, vaccinate, treat, etc. or not. But more importantly, it's just good to know that other folks are out there still raising healthy (for the most part) flocks post-Mareks diagnosis

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

LOL! My hens do the same thing. My barnyard crosses are very amiable when I reach under them to gather eggs but the first time I tried to reach under one of the Fayoumi girls she gave me a blood curdling shriek that had me jerking my hand back in surprise.

I'd definitely try the worming. Mine are sure death on any and all bugs they can find and earth worms can cause parasite overloads in the best of birds. Mine felt like skin and bones when I had a hen die off. My girls always felt thin also but after I safe guarded them they seemed to develop an acceptable amount of keel bone padding. I plan to reworm them again in May or June after the spring bug rush has a chance to die off.

Out of curiosity, do you have pictures of your fayoumi mixes? I’d love to see them.

 

[Sonya9]

A quick question for clarification: Do you treat your flock with herpes medicine daily or just give it to those who are symptomatic for the period that they are symptomatic?

I only use it once or twice if a bird is likely to be stressed, like after a predator attack or if one got sick and had to be separated for a while. The drug blocks the enzyme that the herpes virus uses to spread between cells so using it before symptoms appear or at the first sign of symptoms is important to stop it from progressing.

I haven't had a bird get sick from Mareks since I got the valtrex , though if I had known about it when I did have birds going down from mareks I would have given them a small dose every day. Like most drugs there is a risk of liver problems etc...but Mareks is far worse so it is a minimal risk IMO.

Though I think the main reason I haven't had any sick birds is because I stopped integrating adolescents into the flock. Now I only buy chicks when a broody is ready to raise babies, they grow up with the flock and avoid all the integration stress.