Half of vaccinated hens dead from Marek's

[plaidapus]

Hello,

In less than four years, we have lost half of our chickens to Marek's Disease (all cases confirmed by necropsies by the lab at UC Davis). Anyone who has dealt with Marek's can attest to how awful this disease is: each case has been unique, confusing, and extremely painful to experience.

We purchased all of our chickens from Dare 2 Dream Farms in Lompoc, CA.

• 7 pullets were purchased in summer 2017. 4 died over the following year.
• 3 pullets were purchased in summer 2019. 1 died this month, just over a year later.

We have very pampered hens that have full-time access to their run and are also allowed to free range most days. They have never had any other apparent health issues.

I spoke with the folks at Dare 2 Dream after the deaths from the first batch, and they said that the vaccine that batch seemed to be weak, which would explain our extremely high mortality rate. OK, fair enough. We waited to see if there would be any more deaths before getting more chickens. I know that Marek's stays with our population for life and within the coop and environment long-term, but our "luck" here seems to be extremely bad from what I've been reading.

Has anyone else had this type of experience? Any possible explanations other than we may just have an extremely virulent strain?

 

[igorsMistress]

I’m sorry you’ve had to deal with this. I am all too familiar. The vaccine doesn’t actually prevent Marek’s it just usually prevents symptoms. Realistically you’d do better to breed for resistance and not vaccinate. Egyptian Fayoumi are naturally resistant to Marek’s. Breeding them into your flock and selecting the strongest offspring to breed from will help reduce your losses. Or breeding the survivors for natural resistance may help also.

good luck!

 

[Emmescoop]

I, too, got several chicks from Dare2Dream in Spring 2020 and lost a 10 month old hen literally overnight to Marek’s (confirmed by necropsy). I’m so sorry. Now I’m trying to figure out what to do to be able to add new pullets to the coop.

 

[clapping]

I also got a few pullets from Dare 2 Dream in Spring 2020 and they both died. from Mereks, confirmed via UC Davis as well. It was really painful and they offered no recourse for the issue. Additionally, the one NON-vaccinated chicken that I raised from a chick has been the lone survivor and never got sick. I understand that there are a lot of factors with Mereks, but my experience with Dare 2 Dream makes me think they really either don't vaccinate, vaccinate but also have a huge outbreak of Mereks so chicks are super exposed before they can develop immunity, or keep their chickens in such stressful/negligent conditions that it affects their ability to fight diseases for the rest of their life, and allows for them to die from Mereks. I'm really pretty bitter about it, it's put me off from having chickens but I have this one happy & healthy chicken and I don't want her to be lonely, so I'm also trying to figure out how to add. If you find another way that is more reputable please let me know!

 

[eaking]

I just posted this in another thread, but we, too, got our chickens from Dare 2 Dream. 4 of 5 are now gone. Our vet was certain it wasn't Marek's but I'm beginning to think it is / was. Becky and Susie certainly had it. I thought that Heather and Lizzie just didn't develop properly but there's no doubt in my mind, now. 4 of my little girls, gone. I'm inconsolable.

 

[SarahGfa]

What breeds are you getting from Dare 2 Dream Farm? Something must be wrong with their breeders.

 

[eaking]

They were all buff orpington.

 

[SarahGfa]

They were all buff orpington.

I think they are breeding a bad bloodline. In my experience, vaccines dont' help that much because there are so many different strains of Marek's. If many people in different locations are losing D2D hens to Marek's, that is bad genetics.

 

[eaking]

I think they are breeding a bad bloodline. In my experience, vaccines dont' help that much because there are so many different strains of Marek's. If many people in different locations are losing D2D hens to Marek's, that is bad genetics.

 

[Sea_pc]

We had a Speckled Sussex’s that we bought 1 yr ago from Dare to Dream Farms in Lompoc who died and was confirmed to have Mareks through Necrotopsy. Our vet (The Bird and Cat Clinic in Santa Barbara) guessed before we said it that we’d purchased our chicks through Dare to Dream and said they’ve seen several cases coming from them. They feel they are failing to isolate their chicks for the necessary 6 days after vaccinating. Dare to Dream apparently doesn’t breed their chicks themselves (news to me after being a loyal customer for 3 years) but just resales them from a hachery.