Have you had some of the birds in your flock show symptoms of Marek's?
Also, is the mother brooding the chick(s) or are the eggs in an incubator/chicks in a brooder?
The vaccine can only be bought in bulk and is expensive and needs to be administered asap after hatch and the chick(s) needs to be isolated from exposure to the infected flock for at least 2 weeks after vaccination with quite strict biosecurity measures being practised as the virus can be carried on your skin hair and clothing to say nothing of a broody hen's feathers.
Personally I do not vaccinate chicks for Marek's and I have the disease in my flock but I have been breeding from birds that seem to have resistance to the disease. A vaccinated bird is not guaranteed to have that resistance, because the vaccine masks any potential resistance. I probably would not vaccinate in your situation but mostly because the logistics of it and maintaining the biosecurity mean it would probably not be realistic. Even if you do vaccinate the chick(s), there is no guarantee it will be successful and the vaccine you can buy is not a good one anyway, and may be leading to hotter strains of the virus.
Also, is the mother brooding the chick(s) or are the eggs in an incubator/chicks in a brooder?
The vaccine can only be bought in bulk and is expensive and needs to be administered asap after hatch and the chick(s) needs to be isolated from exposure to the infected flock for at least 2 weeks after vaccination with quite strict biosecurity measures being practised as the virus can be carried on your skin hair and clothing to say nothing of a broody hen's feathers.
Personally I do not vaccinate chicks for Marek's and I have the disease in my flock but I have been breeding from birds that seem to have resistance to the disease. A vaccinated bird is not guaranteed to have that resistance, because the vaccine masks any potential resistance. I probably would not vaccinate in your situation but mostly because the logistics of it and maintaining the biosecurity mean it would probably not be realistic. Even if you do vaccinate the chick(s), there is no guarantee it will be successful and the vaccine you can buy is not a good one anyway, and may be leading to hotter strains of the virus.
