Did you cull your chickens with Mareks?

[Eggcessive]

You are doing a good job reading a lot of information to later form your own opinion and plan. No one will have the same opinion, but you can learn and decide for yourself.

 

[Esrun]

Do they lay normally or at a reduced level? So you kept the parent birds and that ended ok? I am thinking about keeping these 100 birds and breeding their babies and vaccinating at birth and keeping them away from the adults. That way, I don't have to cull 100 birds but I don't want to mess up.

For me personally my birds are completely normal. I only have one left from the original flock that had the one hen who tested positive (the current hen is not vaccinated bc I was told it was too late for her, she seems to have immunity on her own). Keep in mind though I have three chickens. Not nearly your scale and I am very much a newbie still. I was advised to vaccinate any new chicks or get hens who were vaccinated as chicks. So far that has worked for us. Others will have much more sound advice and I’m sure it will be ok I was devastated but now I don’t even think about it unless it’s in terms of biosecurity. So if a friend comes over who has chickens I would make sure they know so they don’t go into our run and infect their flock. But other than that, we have a normal chicken flock (albeit the smallest one known to man ).

 

[adladladl]

First: DO NOT PANIC

Second: Acknowledge that you will lose some birds to the disease, perhaps most or all of your birds if your flock is not vaccinated. In most cases, once symptoms show, the disease will only get worse and worse until the chicken starves to death or asphyxiates. In my opinion it is much better to put the chicken out of its misery while it still has a reasonable quality of life. Further, since chickens who are showing symptoms are likely shedding more of the virus, it's probably a good idea to cull sooner rather than later.

Third: Decide how you will manage the disease going forward. A Marek's infection doesn't mean the end of your chicken keeping days. For backyard keepers, I recommend continuing business as usual, while keeping an eye out for sick birds and culling when appropriate. I do not recommend culling your whole flock and attempting to disinfect your yard and start over. This requires special virucides, and in most cases a backyard keeper will not be able to adequately disinfect their entire yard. Furthermore, any new flock will likely be contaminated anyway by neighboring chickens, wild birds, or even just the wind. So a mass culling and sterilization would likely not help anything.

In summary: I believe the best approach to managing a Marek's infection in a backyard flock is to (1) cull sick birds as necessary, (2) vaccinate and properly quarantine all birds you acquire in the future, and (3) never to give or sell your birds without informing the buyer that they are a carrier for Marek's.

As a final note, please be aware that you may spread the disease to other flocks on your clothing/shoes/hair. Please take adequate precautions to prevent spreading the disease.

I read it...not sure that I agree with it completely but I Read it. Thx