A century of Turkey talk 2000-2100.

[OneMountainAcres]

How is her "typing"?

Almost as terrible as mine lol

 

[Devils Flower]

Miss Molly has decided that she does not like the heat. I find her like this, I swear, every time I go outside! I did put a small tub of water in the back, outside in the run for her so she can stop getting mud all through the drinking water and stop tipping it over but so far, she just keeps going here. She'll stay in the one outside of I put her there but once she gets out, she goes back to this one lol

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She is a smart girl. I like her saddle. She is very cute...

 

[Devils Flower]

Hello!!! What a wonderful Monday
Any ways here is my question.
I have 6 __2.5 month old turkeys. I have one that stays by it's self. The other 5 are always together. Does anyone have a idea why Daisy stays by her self? I have 2 males and 4 females...
She's not sick. She is as healthy as all the others.

 

[Amer]

I might be getting rid of all my turkeys, Not by my choice.

As you know I am NPIP. I monitor for any illness and keep a meticulously clean pens and cages.

I am also honest to a fault. I follow the rules laid down by the state and USDA to the tee, in regards to sales of my birds and eggs.

I went to sell a turkey to a gal the other day, when I looked into the pen I saw this:

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My first thought was MS. Then I thought "no". There are no watery eyes or dripping mucus.

I recently changed bedding. Because I am cheap I could buy bags of chips 20 cents cheaper at the local feed store over TSC, if I bought 20 bags at a time. That is not a big deal I normally buy 20 at a time. The bags were marked "medium flakes"

When I opened them I was disappointed. They were more like sawdust than flakes.

I have been using them as a base and putting the TSC flakes over the sawdust. I was and am hoping it is just allergies.

I contacted my USDA vet and sent her the picture. She says it looks like "mycoplasma". They came out Monday morning and we tested all my turkeys.

I asked her when she sampled the one in the picture if she saw lesions. She said she did not. A good sign. She was also surprised the poult did not seem distressed or ill, but was active and healthy other than the swelling.

I have learned a ton about mycoplasma in the last week. Did you know the estimates are 50% of all chickens carry the organism?

It is a primitive bacteria, it has a cell membrane but no wall, making it act somewhat like a virus yet not. Most bacteria are defeated in the body by breaking the cell wall. The bacteria then dies.

When a person with chickens says some one sent them chicks with MG or MS, they are most often mistaken. MG or MS is always there it is just a matter of your chick being overcome with the bacteria because of a huge number of bacteria cells the body cannot defeat or the chick is weak and cannot defeat it. Mcyoplasma will spread vertically and horizontally in a flock.

Waterers are a primary nursery for mcyoplasma. I think in my case this was the problem. The cage/pen this turkey was in has about 12-15 chicks and 3 poults. I have a large 4 gallon waterer in there. It is one with a large brim for them to drink out of. My cleanliness became a problem too.

I have very thick chips on the floor. No matter how high I put the waterer the chicks managed to throw chips into the drinking brim. I was constantly cleaning them out. Because of my schedule the last couple weeks I did not disinfect daily. STOOOOOPID>>>\\

I would simply clean out the chips and fill when needed. I think with the hot weather we had it incubated the MS, if that is what I have.

I could have and some people say should have no reported the illness. I cannot do that. It is not in me to risk someone else's bird health for my benefit. I do not regret (overly) notifying the USDA. If you get a bird or egg from me, it will be healthy or it will not leave here.

I am not just "NPIP Equivalent" I am NPIP. I check for all the diseases all the time, even those not required for interstate shipment. I am stressing this not just to tell you I am great, but to let you know if I have it anyone can get it.


In Minnesota any mycoplasma requires depopulation of the flock. It is a draconian method of control that does not work. Many states do not require this. It is assumed to be in every chicken flock in the country in some states. It does not effect eggs or meat and is safe for humans.

The reason, as best as I can ascertain, is because of the large turkey farms we have here in Minnesota. The primary effect is it slows the weight gain on the birds for a few weeks.

Because Turkey farms are huge business here in Minnesota they want to eliminate all the MG or MS they find. The big farms get reimbursed by the government if they destroy a flock. Guess who doesn't?

if you have 10,000 turkeys and they do not gain 1/2 pound week for 4 weeks the farmer/corporation has lost 20,000 pounds of turkey... So mine will die if it is positive. Even though I am 75-100 miles from a turkey farm.

I could go on, but won't if you have other questions ask and I will tell you what I know.....

I do know, even though some of you poo-poo NPIP as ineffective, it is the best insurance we have right now, people willing to put up with NPIP most likely are following other health guidelines too.

If you buy from ebay or non-NPIP you really are rolling the dice. Even the large hatcheries will send out Mycoplasma chicks. I believ it was Ideal that had them. I have only gotten chicks or eggs from two places since going NPIP, Cackle and Porters.

I assume like everyone else should the mycoplasma was here and always will be. Turkeys are more susceptible to it than chickens. It is a danger of raising turkeys and chickens together I did not know about. I thought blackhead would be the downfall..


Anyways,, enough for now..
Thanks for reading all this, hopefully it will not scare too many of you away from me. I will let you know what happens.

The one thing I will not do is drop NPIP and sell chicks or eggs.

I’m in tears.
I had two pet turkey hens. One was a beloved lapper named Pancake and the other is The Chocolate (not really named). Well, I tested them both for MG because in order to be a tested flock we need to blood test them. They were perfectly healthy. Pancake came back negative and Chocolate came back positive. So we sent another sample for Chocolate since it was only 40 percent, and apparently these tests can be sketch. Well then Pancake went and got hit by a corn chopper a week ago. (She was broody and in the neighbors’ field, unbeknownst to me.)
Pancake was still alive though.
Today Chocolate tested positive, 80 per cent this time. So we have to kill the turkeys to keep our status. At least I don’t have to kill Pancake, she died of her injuries today. I wasn’t sure if she would recover, though she seemed to be recovering.
But what do I do about all this? Does this mean my chickens have MG?
Does this mean I should never get turkeys again? It doesn’t seem worth it.

 

[shawluvsbirds]

I’m in tears.
I had two pet turkey hens. One was a beloved lapper named Pancake and the other is The Chocolate (not really named). Well, I tested them both for MG because in order to be a tested flock we need to blood test them. They were perfectly healthy. Pancake came back negative and Chocolate came back positive. So we sent another sample for Chocolate since it was only 40 percent, and apparently these tests can be sketch. Well then Pancake went and got hit by a corn chopper a week ago. (She was broody and in the neighbors’ field, unbeknownst to me.)
Pancake was still alive though.
Today Chocolate tested positive, 80 per cent this time. So we have to kill the turkeys to keep our status. At least I don’t have to kill Pancake, she died of her injuries today. I wasn’t sure if she would recover, though she seemed to be recovering.
But what do I do about all this? Does this mean my chickens have MG?
Does this mean I should never get turkeys again? It doesn’t seem worth it.

 

[Amer]

 

[Molpet]

I’m in tears.
I had two pet turkey hens. One was a beloved lapper named Pancake and the other is The Chocolate (not really named). Well, I tested them both for MG because in order to be a tested flock we need to blood test them. They were perfectly healthy. Pancake came back negative and Chocolate came back positive. So we sent another sample for Chocolate since it was only 40 percent, and apparently these tests can be sketch. Well then Pancake went and got hit by a corn chopper a week ago. (She was broody and in the neighbors’ field, unbeknownst to me.)
Pancake was still alive though.
Today Chocolate tested positive, 80 per cent this time. So we have to kill the turkeys to keep our status. At least I don’t have to kill Pancake, she died of her injuries today. I wasn’t sure if she would recover, though she seemed to be recovering.
But what do I do about all this? Does this mean my chickens have MG?
Does this mean I should never get turkeys again? It doesn’t seem worth it.

I'm sorry for your loss.
@duluthralphie might know about mg, but he's off fishing.
Can you test a couple chickens?

 

[R2elk]

I'm sorry for your loss.
@duluthralphie might know about mg, but he's off fishing.
Can you test a couple chickens?

He is in a different state so probably different laws. If I am remembering correctly, he just dropped his turkeys from the NPIP and was allowed to keep them..Where he is they test the turkeys for it but not the chickens.

 

[duluthralphie]

He is in a different state so probably different laws. If I am remembering correctly, he just dropped his turkeys from the NPIP and was allowed to keep them..Where he is they test the turkeys for it but not the chickens.

That’s what I did. MG in turkeys is not a big deal, many states don’t even care and don’t test for it.

 

[Devils Flower]

Introducing some of my mixed flock..