Dumb Marek's Question

Will keeping a Mareks vaccinated turkey help prevent chicken Marek's?

  • Yes- Tried and true!

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • No- Malarkey!

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • What are you talking about, crazy woman?!

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
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Congratulations on never having had known Marek's in your flock. I doubt that has anything to do with natural immunity, but rather luck in not having your birds exposed (or possibly having an infected turkey as described above). Vaccines CREATE natural immunity. Exposure to a small dose of the non-infectious Marek's virus in the vaccine stimulates the birds natural immune system; that is how vaccines work. The problem is that exposure in chickens to "wild" chicken Marek's virus doesn't create chicken immunity, it causes chicken disease. Marek's can be a chronic carrier condition, or it can kill your flock. Once it's in your flock, any survivors will pass it to all other chickens who arrive, and take it with them when you sell the animal, not spread immunity like the above-hypothesized turkey.

I have chickens. I don't have any turkeys. Vaccination was the right choice for me.

I have chickens that have Marek's and I will preach vaccines from the roof tops to any one that will listen. I have lost 3 to this disease (maybe 4) , the lastest one was this morning. I have another that has the eye form of it. All my birds came from the same breeder who DOES NOT have Marek's. There have never been any other chickens on this property. And yet I still have it. It is a death sentence not to be toyed with. My birds are about a year old, usually considered outside of the prime age, but I have it all the same. I vaccinated all my birds last week as I have read that it may prevent the tumor growth even if the bird has been exposed. It was obviously too late for my hen, but I knew that before I did it. She had a very pale comb and had been acting poorly for a few weeks. She was raising nine chicks so now they are orphans
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She was such a good mommy. I brought her inside last night and she ate well, but wouldn't walk around. She was incredibly skinny, but I have seen her eating with her chicks. I think she just couldn't metabolize her food. I have been feeding her extra eggs and yogurt and oatmeal because I knew she was stressed. Poor little thing.

All I can say is, if you don't have it now, VACCINATE before it is too late !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


I have read about keeping the turkeys with the chickens and IMO it may help, but it is not the route I would go if I could start all over again.
 
I'm vaccinating this weekend. I ordered enough of the vaccine to do my current flock and the next 7 hatches. It's $15 a bottle and you can split a bottle into 4 batches. It's just too cheap to skip IMO. We have lots of wild turkeys in our area, I have seen them in my yard many times. I have considered that they might be shedding the mareks and that might offer some immunity to my flock, but I don't want to take the chance. What about wild birds? Can they spread mareks? I live in farm country. There are lots of chickens within a few miles, and if wild birds can spread mareks, then if 1 flock gets it we're all sunk!

Question for those of you who have mixed flocks: Do you vaccinate waterfowl and game birds? (guineas)
Thanks!
 
The live turkey virus will prevent the development of lesions in the chickens. The possible problem I see is in the execution. The chicks need to be exposed to the turkey virus before they are exposed to the dangerous forms of the chicken Marek's virus. The chicks need to be exposed to the turkey virus immediately upon hatch and not exposed to the dangerous forms of the chicken Marek's.

If you have a turkey with the turkey virus living with your flock, then the chicks will in effect be innoculated against the dangerous forms of the virus. But if you already have a dangerous form of chicken Marek's in your flock, then I would think the chicken Marek's would infect them at the same time. I don't know if the turkey Marek's will protect them fast enough to prevent the lesions from forming. I am not an expert, but I would think that if you know you have chicken Marek's active in your flock, you would want to keep the chicks separated from the flock from hatch until a few days after they are innoculated with the turkey virus. I would think innoculation, not just exposure to the infected turkey due to the logistics.

As I said, I am not an expert and this is just my opinion. I don't think having a turkey with active Marek's would hurt the chickens in any way, but I am not sure it will totally protect the chicks.

Editted to add:

I just noticed your specific question was on a vaccinated turkey. I do not know how turkey Marek's vaccination works so I don't know if a turkey vaccinated for Marek's (if that vaccine is really available) actually has the disease and sheds the virus.
 
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My thought would be:

How would you even co mingle birds if this worked. Young turkeys would not be conducive for this as they would have no immunity; older birds would step all over your chicks and they would get killed......

I would think that vaccinating at one day of age is a better and more reliable source of protection.
 
pips&peeps :

My thought would be:

How would you even co mingle birds if this worked. Young turkeys would not be conducive for this as they would have no immunity; older birds would step all over your chicks and they would get killed......

I would think that vaccinating at one day of age is a better and more reliable source of protection.

I agree- I am just questioning the "Bad Science" around the idea a vaccinated/infected turkey would provide an immunity.​
 
Quote:
In THEORY (scientifically), only an infected turkey shedding virus in its dander could impart immunity NOT a vaccinated turkey. And the chicks would have to be exposed to the turkey Marek's dander long enough before any exposure to any chicken Marek's to provide immunity. I don't know how long that would be (at least days to weeks), but I can't see putting an infected adult turkey in with your chicks as being practical.

I vaccinate.
 

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