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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
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.
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

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.