Quote:
Are you sure you need to vaccinate for Marek's? After doing the research about the disease, I think it is a good idea, but I thought that if they were raised with turkeys, the chicks would acquire immunity through the turkey strain.
Not entirely true.
First: the turkeys would have to have Marek's which would kill the turkeys.
Second: The chickens would have to be exposed to the dander of the turkeys before they were exposed to chicken Marek's. Even then, without a blood-borne injection, you are gambling.
I think Laree makes a very good and important point about the timing of exposure. I
don't agree that the turkeys would have had to have the lethal form of the Merek's virus for the chickens to gain the immunity. From Merck Vet Manual, the strain of Merek's in turkeys is not always lethal, but may be so (40-80% lethality in recent European outbreaks, which is far too high a risk for me). More importantly, turkeys also carry a related form of the herpesvirus that is
used to make the poultry vaccine: "Turkeys are also commonly infected with turkey herpesvirus, an avirulent strain related to Mareks disease virus.Three serotypes of the cell-associated herpesvirus are recognized. Serotypes 1 and 2 designate virulent and avirulent chicken isolates, respectively; serotype 3 designates the related avirulent turkey herpesvirus. Serotypes 2 and 3, as well as attenuated serotype 1 viruses, have been used as vaccines." The vaccine I used for my chicks from Jeffers is the avirulent turkey Serotype 3 form.
There are so many posts back and forth about some of these issues (BYC and elsewhere) that it can be hard to get a comprehensible answer, and I read lots of people saying don't bother if you have turkeys around your chickens. Although not an issue for me, (no turkeys), given Laree's salient point, I don't agree. The gist of the comments was that given the extensive spread of the disease, and the different forms the virus can take (lethal to living carriers) the turkeys should be carriers of a non-lethal form and the related form and the chickens would gain a similar immunity as from the vaccine.
Which still does not at all address the point about the timing of exposure. Well, duh, that should be obvious but I for one didn't think about it.
Of course, even when raised with turkeys, chicks should be vaccinated! Mea culpa! For me, I totally agree that vaccination should happen for all as early as possible. I can't believe the crappy advice I was given by "experts" when I got my hens and wish I had done further research the first time around. That said, it took a lot of searching to get clear answers this time. This is a devastating disease, easily avoided. We should be learning about it as the "small pox" of poultry. A simple preventative vaccination, routinely done could stop the spread of this disease. It really helped to have people nearby in the state, like Laree, give their experiences and opinion. To me, is why this group is so valuable.
