Consequences of Marek disease

[Serena Morgan]

Hey everyone, I’m in a bit of a pickle! I had 2 vaccinated Warren chickens, sisters, POL. Had them for 18 months, lovely with no issues. One of them suddenly became very ill, random symptoms but the vet said they thought it was Marek’s disease and my chicken was put down. I had been quarantining her but I am now worried the other chicken could have it. Now 2 weeks since 1 of my chickens died and the other one seems to not have noticed! Happy and normal. However, I am aware this is not the best life for her (alone) and would like to get 1, maybe 2 new chickens. The introduction of new chickens will be hard anyways because of age difference and if I add 2 birds and I obviously do not want my new or existing chickens to become ill or die as my experience with this has been quite traumatic. How do I know if my chicken has Marek (but is just not showing symptoms) ? If so (I assume) it will be passed around my new birds and ending in destruction of my flock, nso please any advise is appreciated

 

[nuthatched]

Did you send the hen off to a lab to verify wether or not it had mareks?

 

[Serena Morgan]

Did you send the hen off to a lab to verify wether or not it had mareks?

No we didn’t, the vet was very bla say and insisted she be put down as she was very ill

 

[wolfwalker]

I'm sorry your vet was such a opiniated person. Mareks in vaccinated birds is rare, on the order of 1 in 100,00 type rare. there are dozens of illnesses, vitamin deficiencies and environmental poison's out there that mimic Mareks disease it is frightening on how quickly Mareks is brought up and no other thoughts are given to the other causes of symptoms. The only way to confirm Mareks is through blood tests or Necropsy...period.

I was talking to the state vet last month, she is down here at the farm at least once a year to inspect and test my flocks, I'm a small scale hatchery now, and the topic of Mareks came up. If you go by facebook or other forums, you would think we are having a Mareks epidemic, but in reality she told me there has been less than a half dozen confirmed cases in a few isolated locations in the past couple of years. But if you go by the forums I mentioned, we are having thousands of cases a month. Which we are not.

The issue comes in that up until the past few years, Poultry had a short shelf life so to speak, the industry only was interested in investigating causes of illness or mortality if it affected the lifespan of their birds. 8 weeks for meat birds and 18 months for egg layers. so compared to other livestock which has been researched for near a hundred years in some species and longer in others, Poultry has been ignored because their lives are to short to even consider looking their way. I only have to think back 30 years to remember on the small family farm if a chicken looked off for more than a day it ended up dinner, because if it was getting sick you didn't want it to go to waste.

In raising chickens for most of my life, and I am considered old now by my sisters grandkids I have had 2 instances of what on the surface appeared to be a Mareks outbreak but when properly investigated was something else. The first was found to be lead poisoning in the brooder barn and teenage growout pens. The cause, they were located on a hundred year old mine tailing area. The solution, moved the operation and problems resolved. Of course we sold the house and moved after the mine company, which was still active came out and removed three feet of topsoil and brought new earth in to keep from being sued for their runoff. They did all the houses and yards in the whole section of town we lived in.

The second, ended up being Aflatoxin, caused by bad feed. I lost my dog in that case . it was from last year. the first thing that popped up in the vets mind was Mareks, until they found out my little dog was having the same symptoms. Luckily for my birds it was a new bag of feed and I only had fed it to the growouts twice, but I still lost over a dozen rare birds. And I did lose Missy. Purina never would admit it was their fault even with lab confirmation, so I no longer will buy their feed and actively discourage my customers from buying it, telling them only that they have quality control issues.

So after all that, if you are truly worried you can have a blood test done for Mareks, it is not truly expensive and then with peace of mind get another hen or two if you want. But truthfully, as long as the new hen has been vaccinated I see no reason you can't get your lone hen a companion without worry.

 

[Serena Morgan]

I'm sorry your vet was such a opiniated person. Mareks in vaccinated birds is rare, on the order of 1 in 100,00 type rare. there are dozens of illnesses, vitamin deficiencies and environmental poison's out there that mimic Mareks disease it is frightening on how quickly Mareks is brought up and no other thoughts are given to the other causes of symptoms. The only way to confirm Mareks is through blood tests or Necropsy...period.

I was talking to the state vet last month, she is down here at the farm at least once a year to inspect and test my flocks, I'm a small scale hatchery now, and the topic of Mareks came up. If you go by facebook or other forums, you would think we are having a Mareks epidemic, but in reality she told me there has been less than a half dozen confirmed cases in a few isolated locations in the past couple of years. But if you go by the forums I mentioned, we are having thousands of cases a month. Which we are not.

The issue comes in that up until the past few years, Poultry had a short shelf life so to speak, the industry only was interested in investigating causes of illness or mortality if it affected the lifespan of their birds. 8 weeks for meat birds and 18 months for egg layers. so compared to other livestock which has been researched for near a hundred years in some species and longer in others, Poultry has been ignored because their lives are to short to even consider looking their way. I only have to think back 30 years to remember on the small family farm if a chicken looked off for more than a day it ended up dinner, because if it was getting sick you didn't want it to go to waste.

In raising chickens for most of my life, and I am considered old now by my sisters grandkids I have had 2 instances of what on the surface appeared to be a Mareks outbreak but when properly investigated was something else. The first was found to be lead poisoning in the brooder barn and teenage growout pens. The cause, they were located on a hundred year old mine tailing area. The solution, moved the operation and problems resolved. Of course we sold the house and moved after the mine company, which was still active came out and removed three feet of topsoil and brought new earth in to keep from being sued for their runoff. They did all the houses and yards in the whole section of town we lived in.

The second, ended up being Aflatoxin, caused by bad feed. I lost my dog in that case . it was from last year. the first thing that popped up in the vets mind was Mareks, until they found out my little dog was having the same symptoms. Luckily for my birds it was a new bag of feed and I only had fed it to the growouts twice, but I still lost over a dozen rare birds. And I did lose Missy. Purina never would admit it was their fault even with lab confirmation, so I no longer will buy their feed and actively discourage my customers from buying it, telling them only that they have quality control issues.

So after all that, if you are truly worried you can have a blood test done for Mareks, it is not truly expensive and then with peace of mind get another hen or two if you want. But truthfully, as long as the new hen has been vaccinated I see no reason you can't get your lone hen a companion without worry.

Thankyou so much, this is very helpful. I am keeping a very close eye on my hen and as days pass am growing surer that it was not Marek disease as theres so many things that It could have been. I have questioned my local hatchery and they have assured me that the vaccine should successfully prevent Mareks.