As someone who has had Mark's in their flock for several years I can tell you that it is not as bad as everything you read about it and it is much more widespread than the vast majority of people would believe. It is a bit like the human Herpes virus in that a large proportion of the population have it but it lies dormant until an outbreak occurs and they are often caused by a stress trigger. Some birds recover from these outbreaks, but will be prone to further outbreaks and others will be resistant. If everyone adopted the approach of culling their flock when they had an outbreak of Marek's, there would be very few backyard flocks left. Many people assume it is a vitamin deficiency because the first thing that is suggested is to supplement vitamins.... which can help support the immune system and even help the neurological system to repair, so definitely worth while doing, but birds with Marek's sometimes recover from paralysis as quickly as they went down with it, others take weeks or months to recover and others decline and die. It is sad every time I lose a bird to it but I have many birds that have been exposed to it and do not suffer from it and I try to breed from those birds.
I am conscious of taking precautions to prevent spreading the disease but I do not let it prevent me from enjoying keeping poultry. It is just another challenge, like pests and predators that needs to be managed.
I am conscious of taking precautions to prevent spreading the disease but I do not let it prevent me from enjoying keeping poultry. It is just another challenge, like pests and predators that needs to be managed.
