Do you Quarantine after shows/etc?

[SundownWaterfowl]

Do you quarantine your birds after showing? Or do you quarantine any newly purchased birds? Ever have any problems with sick birds?
I was wondering because I have seen on here several times that people do not quarantine after showing or purchasing a new bird.

I always quarantine my birds for at least 3-4 weeks after showing. I don't purchase live birds anymore, just hatching eggs.

 

[TK Poultry]

I don't quarantine after showing. My show birds also reside in my breeding pens I don't have enough birds to have breeders and showers seperate. I do quarantine new birds though. But I do make exceptions to the rule especially if I know the breeder personally I will go ahead and start introductions.

I have had only one major problem with illness. I bought some birds at a flea market (first mistake) before I started with exhibition birds, and I didn't know about quarantining or anything like biosecurity, so I just put them out there with the flock and one had Corzya! Well this spread through my birds like wildfire. I tried to treat it and it really didn't work so I had to destroy all my flock except the ducks which can't contract Corzya. That is when I swore off hatchery grade stock and started looking into exhibition poultry and that is how I really got my start. It was kind of a sad beginning but it was a good lesson to learn early on.

I do buy started stock though I think it is the wises choice to make. You can see the finished product. I don't personally like buying hatching eggs at all because you never know whats going to hatch out of there.

I only buy from shows or from breeders that I know show. Another thing I like to do is mix lines so I do alot of buying from different sources. I have three different lines in my BBS Bantam Ameraucana pen.

 

[Gallusfarm]

I've been thinking about this a bit. When you bring in a new bird, and isolate it, it seems to me like it's not getting full exposure.

I've assumed that the purpose, really, is to asure that your existing flock doesn't get sick. If you have a new bird that is isolated, and say in a month it's still fine, you go ahead and do the introductions. But your flock has yet to be exposed to the new bird - then when they are they could potentially get sick. Also, if the new bird is in a separate area - and not allowed access to the soil / coop areas that your birds have been in, then they aren't realy being exposed to the potentially infectious agents.

It almost seems like you would need a sacrificial cull to put in with the new bird in order to get a real gauge of what will happen. What do you think?

The reason I ask is we just got a new bird. Right now, he's isolated in the garage - where none of our chickens have been. Aside from any airborne pathogens, he's not really being exposed.

 

[pips&peeps]

I quarantine my show birds for 3-4 weeks.

I also started vaccinating the whole flock for most of the diseases they could bring home. It is better to be safe than sorry.

I do recommend quarantining chicks that hatch from another's flock. If you aren't buying NPIP certified eggs, you could bring in pollurm and ms/mg strains also pass through the egg.

The problem with ms/mg is that most of the country has it, they just don't know it. Most flocks will have a mild strain because they build up immunities to the strain they have. When you bring in another strain, that is when you have problems with it.

 

[NYREDS]

I don't quarantine when returning from a show. This is only my 50th year of showing but so far it hasn't been a problem. I rarely buy new birds but when I do it's from someone I either know personally or by reputation so that I'm confident that their birds are healthy.
I also do not vaccinate

 

[Gallusfarm]

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Only your 50th year? Wow~

 

[Coopa Cabana]

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I think this is an equally important point. Be sure and ask if the bird you are bringing into your flock has been vaccinated, and for what? Many vaccines are "live", and you don't want to introduce it to your flock if they haven't been vaccinated.