Breeding for Disease Resistance?

[shortgrass]

Agree on the oyster shell...they'll help themselves if they need it but they're probably pretty satisfied with the amount they get from bugs and stuff.

And also, congrats I know the feeling of trying tobtend to chickens while pregnant and having older kids; my youngest is 3 months, and our oldest is 25... My 11 year old is my "chicken lady in waiting" ha-ha. Oh boy it can be fun to have so much "help".

Your spacing sounds good, feed sounds good, not overcrowded that's for sure...

Texas..warm. The first thing I think if is how I like being in Colorado when most pests die over the winter, like lice

If you're not a big fan of chemicals, you could try Neem oil. It's what I use for bothersome bugs like lice, mites, etc. Most would probably go for the permethrin but I'm organic, so that's a no no for me. Neem oil can be used to spray down the coop, chickens, and ground around the coop to stop the lice from reproducing, and any that actually touches them will smother and kill them. So that would be my first item on the agenda; cleaning and deinfesting the coop.you could try a pile if wood ash in a corner where they dust bathe, and I like to use DE in the nesting boxes under the bedding to help deter more buggies since they congregate in nesting boxes and on roosts.

My second plan of action would be getting a soil sample to your local extension office, and a stool sample to the local vet. And maybe another necropsy on a dead bird, if you do happen to have any more pass away on you They might be able to pinpoint what is ailing your flock and see if it isn't something that can be carried over in the soil. We have a great program at CSU for testing soil and animals for way less than a professional since its a learning college. If you're close to a college down there, I'd bet they do the same thing. Saves a couple bucks if needed

That would be a good start anyway. Get a few clues as to what you're dealing with so you can move forward with your plans and not have to struggle with a lurking menace foiling your hard work.

Texas. Hmmm I'm positive there's some great advice another member can give you on your climate. Warmer climates can definitely be hard to deal with sometimes. Guess now I'll stop complaining about being so cold pounding ice out of tanks and having my feed freeze on the chooks if they don't eat fast enough lol

 

[aart]

The first thing I think if is how I like being in Colorado when most pests die over the winter, like lice

Not if they're living on the bird already.......my first experience with lice was finding them on the carcass of a rogue cockerel I slaughtered.
He had spent the winter secluded in my coop partition...it's cold here and no heat in coop, lice were thriving.

But yes, in Texas you may need a more proactive pest regime.......time and research will tell.

 

[shortgrass]

Not if they're living on the bird already.......my first experience with lice was finding them on the carcass of a rogue cockerel I slaughtered.
He had spent the winter secluded in my coop partition...it's cold here and no heat in coop, lice were thriving.

But yes, in Texas you may need a more proactive pest regime.......time and research will tell.

It never ceases to amaze me how they can hibernate or survive and whatnot! I've never even seen a louse up here, so I guess that's why I thought they died or something. Not if they have a warm body to snuggle up next to, I guess.. I've been finding flies snuggled in nooks and crannies waiting for spring too... Oh I just love it when the last of the flies go to sleep for winter..and mosquitoes and wasps.., quit trying to put a damper on my imaginary bug free joy over here lol

 

[aart]

Quote: Oh, I rejoice in bug dead winter here too...one of the main reasons I live here.
Just didn't want anyone thinking their lice problem was going to go away if they lived in a cold climate.

 

[donrae]

I can see two schools of thought.....

Cull any bird that gets sick. Going on the thought that if it gets sick, you don't want to keep or breed it.

Or, give supportive care but no antibiotics and monitor. If the bird recovers, would you use that bird for breeding? Seems to me like it might be a candidate, since it survived the infection. But, this may be a more mammal-based line of thinking, that the mother would pass on immunities to the offspring. I'm not sure how that works in birds, may not be a thing at all. .

 

[mirandalola]

I acquired a rooster today from a local person, and as I was packing the rooster into my van (in a carrier!), she mentioned that her chickens have fowl pox, but she just gives them antibiotics every now and then to keep it at bay. (Which shows that she doesn't understand what antibiotics are, since pox is a viral disease...).

So, since this is just a cutaneous (skin) disease, that they have immunity to once they're over it, should I just let it run its course through my flock? (This is assuming that it will eventually do so, even though this new rooster is being kept separate from my flock for the 2-4 weeks people recommend.) Or are there any birds in the whole of chickendom that will not catch it, and I should cull all who catch it and only keep those who don't?

I understand that there is also a "wet" version of fowl pox, and I will probably have a hard time distinguishing that from other respiratory illnesses and will probably cull all the birds that catch that.

I've dealt with coccidiosis and mycoplasmosis and lice, this is new!

(I figured that when I got chicks and asked for all pullets, that I'd end up with a rooster or two because they're hard to sex. It's looking like they were all correctly sexed and I'm in a hurry to get my breeding flock started! But I'm also ready to just have some healthy birds already so this is probably the last adult bird I'm getting! I'm either hatching my own eggs or just getting straight runs from now on until my flock is breeding!)

 

[shortgrass]

I can see two schools of thought.....

Cull any bird that gets sick. Going on the thought that if it gets sick, you don't want to keep or breed it. 

Or, give supportive care but no antibiotics and monitor. If the bird recovers, would you use that bird for breeding? Seems to me like it might be a candidate, since it survived the infection. But, this may be a more mammal-based line of thinking, that the mother would pass on immunities to the offspring. I'm not sure how that works in birds, may not be a thing at all. . 

You know, that's an excellent question; I'm curious of that too...

But first, I have to correct something I posted earlier... I might have brought up genetic immunity... I should have said genetic RESISTANCE.

Now that I got that out of the way lol, apologies... I know in mammals, like cattle, the actual DNA is changed with every circumstance it encounters throughout its life; every disease combatted, every microbe, molecule, chemical exposure, etc, changes our actual DNA, passing mutations and resistances on through to our young. That's how we adapt to changes in our environments...in theory anyway...

I would assume that bird DNA works the same way, otherwise certain species wouldn't be able to adapt and pass those adaptations on to their young as well...

An egg is an egg, whether is has a shell or not, right? Still contains the two sets of DNA possible to start a new life. Hmmm... I don't believe in evolution BTW lol


But add in, that just being nutrient deficient can also alter how DNA is passed through an egg, especially in chickens. End up with one eyed chicks or something, etc. How can we be sure that not being resistant to a disease isn't, in fact, just a nutrient deficiency that brought that specific animals immunity down?

I know zilch about avian genetics, that's why I'm here...to learn! Teach me!


Oh! I'm enjoying this discussion!

 

[mirandalola]

Also, of course, the new rooster has lice, just like all my hens/pullets. I'm seriously considering just throwing him in the coop with the others and letting all their germs mingle until they find some kind of equilibrium... I know that they could catch a disease from him but if I'm trying to build up resistance, isn't that what I want?

 

[lazy gardener]

Personally, knowing her husbandry methods, I'd have dropped that bird, and run for the hills. I'd definitely not be bringing any birds into my flock at this point. Your flock is already immuno-compromised. To bring Fowl Pox into the flock would perhaps be a death sentence to many of them. Fowl pox, so far as I know, is much more than just a topical disease. It's a herpes virus, and does far more than just infect the skin. It can be dry pox, showing mainly lesions on the skin, or wet pox, also affecting the pulmonary system. Wet is much more lethal.

 

[centrarchid]

In my opinion you do not want to challenge birds with so much at once. This will not be just about selection pressure where you hammer birds with heavy parasite / pathogen burdens all the time. Some of the health challenges will involve management to make so the undesirable parasites / pathogens are prevented for getting out of hand.


I do research with animals. Doing it as I type where we are bringing pond reared stock and placing them into larger tanks. We are running them through quarantine and gradually introducing them to the conditions they will be tested under. At some point we we also be exposing them to stocks from other locations. We want make to stocks are not being freshly exposed to multiple organisms at the same time they are acclimating to a new environment. Eventually they will be exposed but we want it to be gradual. Otherwise we run real risk of having problem that caused you to start this thread.