For people with MM chicks. This fell in my e-mail this morning....

[Frozen Feathers]

This was posted in the Rare poultry breeds 2 Yahoo group I'm in. I have copied and pasted it exactly as written.... I just thought people would be interested in reading it.



This is an unedited email from McMurray. Please cross post.

----- Original Message -----
*From:* <removed by myself>
*To:*
*Sent:* Thursday, March 27, 2008 12:24 PM
*Subject:* McMurray hatchery

Thank you for your email.
Most of your question are answered in the statement below. Turkeys and
Pheasants are grown and hatched in separate facilities from the chickens and
are there for not affected.

If you have any additional question please contact us.

Avian Encephalomyelitis (AE) is passed from the infected hen (the only
symptom being a drop in egg production) through the egg into the chick. Chicks
from infected hens display AE symptoms within two to three weeks of age.
Those chicks are infectious and should be quarantined until well after
symptoms are no longer displayed. All equipment and housing should be
disinfected and litter disposed of properly. Surviving chicks will be
immune to AE in the future, will not shed the virus, and will pass this
immunity on to their offspring.

In February one of our larger breeder flocks had a well water quality
problem. We took corrective action and treated the well water. There was
also a reduction in egg production as well as poor hatchability at that
time. We falsely diagnosed the egg production problem as being water
related. A few weeks ago we had reports of mortality in some birds and
recently we have had a confirmed report of AE, for which our flocks had been
vaccinated. As you can imagine this left us in a quandary as to how this
could have happened.

By consulting with veterinarians we confirmed that AE runs it course in
adult birds for 1 to 2 weeks and the surviving birds are immune. That
period of time has elapsed; *eggs and chicks from our now immune breeding
flocks will not be infected.*

We are sorry for any inconvenience and problems caused and thank you so very
much for your patience and understanding of this most trying time for
McMurray Hatchery. Just as we done for the last 90 years you can again
expect the same high quality chicks in all future orders.



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If this has already been posted, I'm sorry.

I haven't had much time to be here, and couldn't find anything about it using search.

 

[Buster]

Thank you Frozen! Finally a logical explanation from the horse's mouth. I will absolutely be ordering from MMH in the future. Any livestock business goes through an occasional bump like this and the fact that they have taken measures to correct it makes me feel good about them. The birds I have now came from MMH and I think they are great.

 

[speckledhen]

Finally, a complete explanation in a nutshell.

 

[YoungChickenOwner]

Quote:
x2
I agree with the above post!

 

[Frozen Feathers]

Yes, it sounds like they've figured out the problem.

I have some MM chicks that my friend is keeping until I can go get them. I think tomorrow I am picking them up!!

She hasn't reported anything out of the ordinary. One loss during shipping and one lost a few days later, but it was weak to start with. It's not uncommon to see a few weak chicks, especially this time of year.

 

[1acrefarm]

Thanks for the info. This is important info. I think maybe a sticky would be in order.

 

[newchickwi]

I just saw this on the Homestead_Poultry list. It's good to see that they are finally saying something--maybe this will help to calm our nerves!

 

[Henrietta23]

Thanks for passing that on Frozen. I'm going ahead with my order of 8 chicks from them. I still plan to keep them separate from the Ideal chicks I'll be receiving the week before. Hopefully we'll be okay.

 

[eggchel]

Thank you for posting that Angie.

It is good to finally have some answers from MM and Im sure that a lot of members appreciate the information.


Chel

 

[pips&peeps]

That's nice and all that they finally said something, but I would like an "egg"splanation of why these flocks were not vaccinated for AE in the first place.

From what I understand it the standard for all commercial hatcheries to vaccinate for it. And, how did this disease get introduced into their flock? What kind of biosecurity do they have? I would think with a business of this size it would be on "lock down" proportions.