I wish I knew.. DO YOU KNOW?

[orrpeople]

I do not consider a loss of 5% of the birds an outbreak if that is normal loss from Marek's. You would have to raise 100 birds to have 5 die. I do not know many people that do not have a loss of 5 birds i 100. Must people need 10 years or more of chicken raising to have raised 100 birds..

That said someone asked what my plans are. I told you my reasons for not vaccinating. I am actually leaning towards vaccinating. I have a bottle/vial of vaccine in my fridge now.

I am going to be cutting down the number of birds I raise next year for personal reasons. I will be visiting lots of farms in the next year, God willing. Some of you know, some do not, I am running for the House of Representatives here in Minnesota. I will not have the time I have this year.

I still want to breed and show birds, that is my hobby. I will not be selling chicks except to a few people and paid for in advance. I will be selling started pullets and roosters later in the year.

By vaccinating I can save myself some money. I paid $22 for 1000 doses of vaccine. It does not come in a smaller batch. That does not seem bad. Here is the catch 22.

The vaccine is in two parts the live virus and a reagent to dilute and get it moving. Once they are mixed you have 1 hour to use it in. After and hour it is worthless. I might stretch that to an hour and 15 but I am gambling then.

It is made for large hatcheries that have these huge machines for giving the vaccine to chicks while still in the egg on day 18. I do not have that machine. The machine will do 10,000 eggs in an hour. I have to give the shot to the chicks one at a time.

I have sold 2 of my incubators to a friend here on BYC. I will be using just 2 this year. Even so I could hatch over 400 eggs on oneday if I wanted. I have lots of foamies too,...I do not want too. I hope to limit my hatches to less than 50 a day. I think I can vaccinate 50 in an hour or little over.

The vaccine takes 10 days to take effect. I will be keeping my chicks away from any contaminated or potential contaminated area for those 10 days. (can you say PITA)...

If they come in contact with the virus it is a race to see if the vaccine or the virus grows first. BTW I saw some called Mareks a mycoplasma, and even I might have. I apologize it is a virus, because it is a virus is why it can live for so long anywhere and every place. It can be carried on a birds foot or a bees butt. Drop off and wait to infect your bird.

At 22 bucks it is cheaper for me to vaccinate and not rol lthe dice on which bird lives. I have had a hard time deciding only because I like the idea of natural substances in my birds.

I have all but decided. To vaccinate because I am simply growing antibodies in the bird that can develop naturally. I am also considering fowl pox vaccine. It costs me time and money to raise birds. I need about 50-60 birds of each breed I show to get 1 or 2 show birds from....(that is if no one steals my birds)..

I am showing second class birds this year because my best were taken by disease or a thief. I will not show second class birds next year.. BTW My second class birds are pretty nice looking in many cases. but they are not show stoppers like I want.

Some one asked about which breeds were more resistant. That is really a question I cannot answer. I have not lost many Doms if any. That just happens to be luck on my part. I have lost Cream legbars and one white legbar for sure. It all depends on the farm, the strain of Mareks and the line of birds more than the breed.

I do know Murphy's law hits hard and my line of Speckled Sussex were hit hard. Not much help there, guys and gals, sorry.

If I am going to start vaccinating I will look at all available. I will not be doing New Castle or any other disease not in this area presently. Here i a link to some vaccines available and an interesting read:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps030

I am heavily leaning this way as well (to vaccinate). I just put my remaining 2 Legbar pullets in with their cockerel last night (he's such a gorgeous bird and it took me a looonnngg time to get a really good looking, pure cream guy that I hate to lose his genetics). I will be doing the same with my Bielefelders (I forgot to include that I lost one of those too) and my Silverudd's Blues (haven't lost any of them, but I kept so few that I should probably think about saving some if things take a turn). My goal will be to collect as many eggs as I can, disinfect the bejeebers out of them and everything else, then hatch and vaccinate. I really don't want to (and can't afford to) start over with any of those breeds. We are still dealing with hot, windy conditions here, so if anything, the virus might flare up again in the next couple of weeks. I feel like the clock is ticking and I just want to save some of the beautiful lines I finally have. That, or cull them all and get out of the business altogether.

 

[CapricornFarm]

I am heavily leaning this way as well (to vaccinate). I just put my remaining 2 Legbar pullets in with their cockerel last night (he's such a gorgeous bird and it took me a looonnngg time to get a really good looking, pure cream guy that I hate to lose his genetics). I will be doing the same with my Bielefelders (I forgot to include that I lost one of those too) and my Silverudd's Blues (haven't lost any of them, but I kept so few that I should probably think about saving some if things take a turn). My goal will be to collect as many eggs as I can, disinfect the bejeebers out of them and everything else, then hatch and vaccinate. I really don't want to (and can't afford to) start over with any of those breeds. We are still dealing with hot, windy conditions here, so if anything, the virus might flare up again in the next couple of weeks. I feel like the clock is ticking and I just want to save some of the beautiful lines I finally have. That, or cull them all and get out of the business altogether.

That really stinks

 

[orrpeople]

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8561750
This article mainly focuses on disinfecting for bacteria on hatching eggs and improving hatchablity. It does not mention viral disinfecting. Any good information on a viral disinfectant for hatching eggs?
@casportpony @duluthralphie

 

[orrpeople]

http://www.teflex.org/en/disinfectant-products-teflex-egg-hatcheries-disinfection.php
I think I found one. Any others?

 

[duluthralphie]

I use bleach. They get dosed twice in 120-130 degree water with rinses before and after...It is what the USDA Vet said works best for virus and bacteria.

do not worry about the high temp water, the interior of the egg has to reach 117 degrees to kill it. It is only in the water a few seconds. DO NOT DO THIS with cold winter eggs!!

I learnt the hard way..Make sure they are room temp.

 

[casportpony]

I'm not up to speed on how to disinfect eggs.

I've read that the Sebright and the Silkie are very susceptible to MDV. It's what I read on the web, so it must be true, right? I've also read about breeds that are resistant to it, but I cannot remember what they were.

 

[orrpeople]

I use bleach. They get dosed twice in 120-130 degree water with rinses before and after...It is what the USDA Vet said works best for virus and bacteria.

do not worry about the high temp water, the interior of the egg has to reach 117 degrees to kill it. It is only in the water a few seconds. DO NOT DO THIS with cold winter eggs!!

I learnt the hard way..Make sure they are room temp.

Full concentration bleach or a bleach solution?

 

[duluthralphie]

I ounce to one gallon of hot water.

 

[orrpeople]

I ounce to one gallon of hot water.

I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer so.. rinse, dunk, rinse, dunk, rinse - is that the routine? And is the rinse also the same temp?
Also, I did some research on the automatic vaccination "gun" today to perhaps expedite the process since the vaccine is only viable for an hour. I will call Jeffers Pet tomorrow and see what kind of advice they give. I think I will vaccinate for my own birds and those with vaccinated flocks, and let the others decide what they think is best; but require them to get their chicks post-haste so they don't have the opportunity to be exposed to anything here.
Or...cull the whole business...(in the wee hours of the morning, this is what I want to do...in the light of day, not so much).

 

[casportpony]

I'm not the sharpest knife in the drawer so.. rinse, dunk, rinse, dunk, rinse - is that the routine? And is the rinse also the same temp?
Also, I did some research on the automatic vaccination "gun" today to perhaps expedite the process since the vaccine is only viable for an hour. I will call Jeffers Pet tomorrow and see what kind of advice they give. I think I will vaccinate for my own birds and those with vaccinated flocks, and let the others decide what they think is best; but require them to get their chicks post-haste so they don't have the opportunity to be exposed to anything here.
Or...cull the whole business...(in the wee hours of the morning, this is what I want to do...in the light of day, not so much).