How to proceed - dry fowl pox in chicks needing rehoming

[Chickiedoodle99]

Okay. These may be dumb questions but I need confirmation since I am new to this

I have a batch of 16 chicks that are 3 and 4 weeks old. One has dry fowl pox and was quarantined as soon as I saw the wart-like growths. All the others appear to be fine but I know the incubation period can be over a week. We were planning to only keep our 4 favorite chicks and sell or give away the other 12.

1) Are they all now contaminated and unable to be sold/given away?

2) Can I reasonably say they don’t have fowl pox if they stay clear for a couple weeks?

3) I guess I have to “cull” the infected bird or vaccinate all the others? It’s a beautiful Easter Egger but I guess no one would want an infected bird?

4) Seems like a lot of people don’t vaccinate backyard flocks so is fowl pox just a standard issue people deal with?

 

[Eggcessive]

What is your location? Pox is more of a problem in deep south or tropical areas. Where did you read that fowl pox has a week long incubation? Since mosquitoes primarily spread pox, you should be able to separate the sick bird, and keep the chicks away from mosquitoes, so they don’t get bitten. Make sure they do not have any scabs. Do you have a picture of the chick with pox? How old are these chicks? Unless the chick with pox is very ill, I wouldn’t cull it. It will recover in 3 weeks, unless it is a severe case. And they won’t be contagious once their scab fall off. They will become immune in the future. There is a vaccine available for any chicks who do not get scabs. Here are a couple of good articles about fowl pox:
http://extension.msstate.edu/publications/fowl-pox-backyard-flocks

https://the-chicken-chick.com/fowl-pox-prevention-treatmen/