can adult chickens be vaccinated for marek's?

[LynnMarie]

SeminoleWind,

That is so sweet, I am so happy your chicken is better. I so understand the attachment. Our chicken would cry until I picked her up and put her in my lap and then she would fall asleep, making little purring sounds. As she got better, she would jump on me as soon as I sat down and tried to follow me into the house.

I put her back with the flock last weekend and she si doing much better. I am giving the whole flock a small waterer with vitamins in it each day, other than their large water. I put it on the opposite side of the run, so they finish it.

I was supposed to give the girls the vaccine last weekend, but a migrain kept me down from sunday to thursday and I am still on migrain meds hangover. lol We are also having pavers layed this weekend and I have so much house work to catch up on, ughh. Sooo, I will most likely be giving the flock their shots on tues or wed. I will keep you updated.

Lynn

 

[seminolewind]

I'm glad things are going better for your chicken. Uh, I mean, Lap Puppy...uh, I mean lap chicken?

 

[CarolJ]

Don't know if anyone if still following this thread, but I had a question. I've spent the past hour on internet and BYC searches trying to find the answer. I read this entire thread - but if the answer is there, I've missed it.

I am considering vaccinating my entire flock. I've had a couple hens die over the past few months with Mareks-like symptoms. I haven't had the cause of death confirmed, though. If I DO go ahead and vaccinate the entire flock, will be okay to eat the eggs that the older hens lay after they've been vaccinated? I have about 35 layers - and some regular egg customers. If the vaccine will adversely affect the eggs, then I will skip the vaccine and just work on building the immunity of my flock.

 

[seminolewind]

Carol, you can eat vaccinated hen eggs. Most production chickens for the public are vaccinated for Marek's. If your flock is already exposed, a vaccination will not do anything. Just vaccinate day old chicks and keep them separate for at least 2 weeks from the flock. Longer is better.

Your laying flock does have a good chance of being resistant at their age. Yes, you may lose a few of them, over the next year, but as chickens get older they are more resistant to Marek's. I still have most of my chickens from 51/2 years ago. The ones I've lost were under 8 months old.

You may want to think about sending a dead chicken (sorry!) to a lab for a necropsy next time.

 

[shorty7978]

One question? Do chickens pass on the antibodies at all to the eggs that they lay? It may sound crazy.....chicks dont nurse which is how other animals can pass on their antibodies but has anyone tested to see if its a possibility that chickens pass it to their eggs. Everyone is concerned with what we eat now days and if we are so worried about vaccinating our chickens because we dont want to eat "non-organic" eggs then wouldnt that mean that the chickens are passing antibodies on to the eggs? I personally have not vaccinated my flock and I'm afraid to do it now because some of mine are over a year while others are only a few months. I keep any new chick quarantined for 6 weeks before introducing.

One other question.....I have turkeys which I have not released yet only been about 4 weeks that they have been here however I am now reconsidering allowing my turkeys to free range with my chickens.

thoughts????

 

[seminolewind]

Several of us have some control groups going. All my chickens have been exposed to Marek's. I took their eggs and hatched them.

If the hen has survived Marek's or been exposed, they do pass on the resistance.

 

[GardenerGal]

I have had Marek's in my barn for years, due to taking one hen from someone who didn't know that the hen had the disease. Live and learn.
My remaining birds have passed on their resistance, but this spring I wanted to add new ones and bought hatchery chicks that were vaccinated. I don't know whether the vaccine was given in the egg or the day-old chicks.

The chicks had to be taken into the poultry barn at 8 weeks because they outgrew their brooder. They stayed in a separate cage for a bit, but I eventually had to let them out and join the adults. One of the now 10 week old chicks today showed the Marek's ocular symptoms, and I'll have to put her down. It never stops being sad to have to do that. I dread that more of the chicks will develop Marek's. I'm hoping that the infected chick is representative of the 10% failure rate of the vaccine, but I was surprised to read here that Marek's vaccine doesn't prevent Marek's paralysis and blindness. Never heard that before. Everyone advises vaccination, but nowhere on any site had I read that the vaccine only has a partial affect.

My understanding is that paralysis and blindness of Marek's is due to tumors growing on the sciatic and optic nerves. So, tumors are the cause of Marek's symptoms. The tumors ARE the cancer.

 

[seminolewind]

I have had Marek's in my barn for years, due to taking one hen from someone who didn't know that the hen had the disease. Live and learn.
My remaining birds have passed on their resistance, but this spring I wanted to add new ones and bought hatchery chicks that were vaccinated. I don't know whether the vaccine was given in the egg or the day-old chicks.

The chicks had to be taken into the poultry barn at 8 weeks because they outgrew their brooder. They stayed in a separate cage for a bit, but I eventually had to let them out and join the adults. One of the now 10 week old chicks today showed the Marek's ocular symptoms, and I'll have to put her down. It never stops being sad to have to do that. I dread that more of the chicks will develop Marek's. I'm hoping that the infected chick is representative of the 10% failure rate of the vaccine, but I was surprised to read here that Marek's vaccine doesn't prevent Marek's paralysis and blindness. Never heard that before. Everyone advises vaccination, but nowhere on any site had I read that the vaccine only has a partial affect.

My understanding is that paralysis and blindness of Marek's is due to tumors growing on the sciatic and optic nerves. So, tumors are the cause of Marek's symptoms. The tumors ARE the cancer.

I am sorry. I quarantine my chicks for 2-14 weeks-the longer the better. Absolute quarantine to let the resistance build up. None of my vaccinated have died yet of Marek's (prayer!). But a few have died from other nasty bugs because I think that Marek's , vaccinated or not, lowers their immune system making it easy for Coccidiosis and other to take hold.

It's all very very sad. It also makes me question having chickens. I think in the future I will let the number of pets dwindle on their own, and only keep a small flock.

 

[GardenerGal]

I am sorry. I quarantine my chicks for 2-14 weeks-the longer the better. Absolute quarantine to let the resistance build up. None of my vaccinated have died yet of Marek's (prayer!). But a few have died from other nasty bugs because I think that Marek's , vaccinated or not, lowers their immune system making it easy for Coccidiosis and other to take hold.

It's all very very sad. It also makes me question having chickens. I think in the future I will let the number of pets dwindle on their own, and only keep a small flock.

On more observation, the symptoms of this chick don't seem to be Marek's. The onset was too rapid (over a period of one day) and became complete paralysis including limp neck and eye paralysis. I started thinking it was more like botulism symptoms. None of the other 28 chicks show any symptoms.

 

[Haunted55]

One question? Do chickens pass on the antibodies at all to the eggs that they lay? It may sound crazy.....chicks dont nurse which is how other animals can pass on their antibodies but has anyone tested to see if its a possibility that chickens pass it to their eggs. Everyone is concerned with what we eat now days and if we are so worried about vaccinating our chickens because we dont want to eat "non-organic" eggs then wouldnt that mean that the chickens are passing antibodies on to the eggs? I personally have not vaccinated my flock and I'm afraid to do it now because some of mine are over a year while others are only a few months. I keep any new chick quarantined for 6 weeks before introducing.

One other question.....I have turkeys which I have not released yet only been about 4 weeks that they have been here however I am now reconsidering allowing my turkeys to free range with my chickens.

thoughts????

One of the biggest reasons that the Marek's vaccine doesn't take with some chicks is because of resistance passed on by it's mother. This temporary immunity can last for several weeks to a couple of months from all I've read and been told. Now this resistance is different from what Seminole and I deal with. Our birds have Marek's and they have fought it off. Mine are stunted and if and when a necropsy is done, it will show some of the classic symptoms of this disease. The resistance is totally different from what would be passed on to a chick from a vaccinated bird. The chicks from a Marek's survivor have a 'real' immunity from the live virus that the parent's survived. This is on a cellular level as in genomes and all that good stuff. One of my first control group hatched from survivors eggs didn't have the genes fall right for him and he died with full blown roadrunner position and occular involvement. Poor bugger never had a chance. The seven left from this group are housed with birds who have the active marek's virus in them and are not affected at all. Also, from what I've read, the Marek's vaccine falls under the "Organic" allowable drugs or vaccines. It isn't passed through the eggs and even if it were, humans can not get the herpes viruses that cause Marek's in chickens. There are a couple of diseases that we can get from chickens, but for the most part, they are a nuisance only. There are some that can do you and yours harm though and a good biosecurity program is a must. Do your research.

http://www.thepoultrysite.com/artic...m-processing-for-organic-producers-table-eggs

I run my turkeys with my chickens since last summer. It stopped the mega deaths we were having here and also stopped some of the symptoms. If you plan on doing this I would highly recommend you stock up on cayanne pepper and apply it 1-2 tbls to their feed. My feeder held 25 lbs of feed for the turkeys and the first dosing was 3 tbls for this amount of feed. I did this for 3 days to allow the capsaicin to build up and then decreased the amount to 1-2 tbls per 25 lbs of feed. This summer, I am adding the cayenne once or twice a week. This is to help head off Black head disease that turkeys can get from chickens if the chickens have it. If your turkeys get this you will have to treat with Fish Zole, or they could die. There are risks to doing this, but I have been blessed and have taken some precautions to make sure mine weren't hit with this.