Bad breeder? Health concerns

[Marleeschicks]

Hi guys.
So I have been having some concerns about the health of my flock. Last July I got 5 ameraucana pullets from a local ermine ameraucana breeder. One of my girls ended up having a cancerous tumor diagnosed back in March. She was only 3 months old when she began showing symptoms and only 7 months when diagnosed. 2 of my other hens have some oddities but not super concerning as of yet.
Though I recently discovered a handful of others who have been having issues with their birds coming from this same breeder. One has a white ameraucana hen with the same issue as my white (tumor). Her rooster has disabled legs and crawls to walk since 2 months old. 2 of her ermines died out of nowhere
Another friend got chicks from her and one had splayed out legs and died and she also had a pullet from her die.
There are rumors that this is happening to quite a few others.
With all that said, this breeder is NPIP certified so I of course assumed (as a new chicken owner) she was a good breeder. But if there are multiple accounts of issues from this breeder (she is aware of these issues) and she is still continuing these lines.. would you consider this to be bad breeding?
The birds are gorgeous but clearly there is something running through these lines. What do u think about this situation?
Could there be something like mareks or what else could be causing these things to happen? There are too many people with chicks having issues and or dying.
I want to know ur thoughts on this?

 

[Chikenshiken]

That is an incredible amount of coincidences to not be considered suspicious but I’m not a breeding expert

 

[Marleeschicks]

That is an incredible amount of coincidences to not be considered suspicious but I’m not a breeding expert

Exactly. I don’t kno enough about breeding lines and such so I was hoping maybe someone who does breed— may be able to give some insights as to what could be causing this.
Right now my speculation is that she is aware there is some health issue but just doesn’t want to cut years of project breeding and lose out on alot of $ if she was to cull the flock.
My real question is what could be causing this .. and if it’s something like along the lines of mareks .. then she is presumably breeding unethically. Knowingly bringing more birds with issues and lives of suffering like my Pearlie into the world.

 

[SourRoses]

You might seriously consider getting testing done. Other customers should as well.

This is helpful:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-great-big-giant-mareks-disease-faq.66077/


If multiple customers have positive tests for Mareks or a similar contagious disease, the breeder should be reported to the NPIP program (even though they don't test for it, can they really continue to certify someone spreading a disease?).
Customers should also give negative reviews in as many places as possible. Because if a contagious disease is spread by a careless breeder, many more people will loose flocks and the ability to raise chickens on their contaminated land. It's the number one thing you do not do as a breeder or even as a small time chicken seller.
There is a group on FB called "Good egg / Bad egg" which has a lot of circulation in the chicken community and would be a good place to get the word out IF you can confirm multiple customers have tested with the same disease. Without a test you're just guessing. So sorry that you're going through this

 

[Marleeschicks]

You might seriously consider getting testing done. Other customers should as well.

This is helpful:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-great-big-giant-mareks-disease-faq.66077/


If multiple customers have positive tests for Mareks or a similar contagious disease, the breeder should be reported to the NPIP program (even though they don't test for it, can they really continue to certify someone spreading a disease?).
Customers should also give negative reviews in as many places as possible. Because if a contagious disease is spread by a careless breeder, many more people will loose flocks and the ability to raise chickens on their contaminated land. It's the number one thing you do not do as a breeder or even as a small time chicken seller.
There is a group on FB called "Good egg / Bad egg" which has a lot of circulation in the chicken community and would be a good place to get the word out IF you can confirm multiple customers have tested with the same disease. Without a test you're just guessing. So sorry that you're going through this

Because it can’t be spread from egg to chick — and one of the girls hatched the eggs herself—that makes it confusing. Maybe they caught it from contaminated transporting? Are their other illnesses within bloodlines that could cause this from hen to egg?

 

[SourRoses]

Because it can’t be spread from egg to chick — and one of the girls hatched the eggs herself—that makes it confusing. Maybe they caught it from contaminated transporting? Are their other illnesses within bloodlines that could cause this from hen to egg?

Eggs from a Mareks positive flock would need to be sanitized before incubation in case of exterior contamination.
Also, if you read the provided link, there are diseases with similar symptoms that can be vertically transmitted.
Of course, they could have been infected on your property, or not infected at all.

There is a lab that does testing from a sample you send in, for a lot of different diseases, but I can't for the life of me remember where I saved the link. I know someone around here will have it, it's usually shared in conversations about testing for the blue egg gene... I bet if you posted a new thread in the Emergencies forum someone would share it.