Living With Mareks: And Yes, that's my introduction, sadly.

[seminolewind]

I really would love to hear more about breeding for immunity--thank you! And you are right. We would need a rooster coop or get ready to cull on that.

Hi. Boy there is alot of good information given here on this thread! I was at BYC in those days when a bunch of us were just discovering it was not rare., and what's making our chickens die. At that time I had hatched 10 perfect GLPolish. 3 started limping, then gasping. One by one they got one leg paralysis and had to be put down. I cried my eyes out.
A few months ago my first hatched chicken died at 12 years old , never vaccinated. I found there were some older chickens in my flock that were never symptomatic. They lived a long life. From then on all chicks were vaccinated day 1 or 2 of life and kept under quarantine for 3-4 weeks. I had separate tops or aprons to use , washed my hands and tried to do most of their care first thing every day. Right now all my chickens are vaccinated (18) except for one red hen that was found wandering around my neighborhood. She was already an adult.

I buy my chicks already vaccinated at the hatchery. Or I do it. After you give a few injections , you will be an expert. My first ones were real hard for me. So I learned that moistening the downy injection area so I can see skin. Pinch up the skin and inject. Don't put the needle in far, just far enough. I don't hatch eggs anymore because I keep the roos and I have 6 right now, Silkies.

Breeding for resistance. Well I had a bunch of adult hens prior to Marek's that were not affected. I also had a hatched chick go to a clean home for 6 months, then came back to me when they decided to eat him. He was never symptomatic. So I think age has resistance just because of age.

Getting a Marek's vaccination is like a "safe" exposure that signals their immune system to be resistant. Exposure to the virus is the " unsafe method". Either way, their resistance is built because of an exposure , not birth. Some, I think, get resistant with age . I think it must be their general overall resistance. Chicks do not get exposed inside the chicken, and exposure does not penetrate an egg.

Marek's is known to be present for over 100 years. Over 100 years of scientific research has been done already including breeding for resistance. Try to find some research information that was not done with Dr. Google or the Chicken Lady.

Keep a closed flock. I broke that rule one time at a show for a cute silkie hen, and then my flock had Marek's.

 

[chrissynemetz]

Welcome to BYC! Good luck with your flock.

 

[janiedoe]

Welcome to BYC. I'm so sorry that you are dealing with this! I hope that our members with experience in Mareks can be helpful.

 

[rjohns39]

Hi and welcome to BYC We're so happy you've decided to join us

Best of luck with your flock

 

[Grammy60]

Hello and welcome to BYC We are so happy you have joined us. Best of luck with your flock

 

[microchick]

Yep, usually the secondary problems with Marek's disease is what gets them given time and low resistance.

Out of my original flock of 18 birds, not one showed any signs of primary infection with MD. They all developed symptoms at one year or more of age except for one who developed a limp that I could never pinpoint to an injury although I had witnessed him fighting with another rooster and just thought it was due to that. He limped his entire life before dying from wasting at the somewhere around one year of age.

The funny thing, if you want to call it that, that I noticed with my birds is that the roosters were affected more than the pullets/hens were from the original flock. One developed neurological problems at the age of 3 months. I have pictures of him 'playing' with me. He would fly up and sit on my back or shoulder while I did chores and loved to be cuddled. He suddenly started to jump in the air, scream and run blindly around until he would fall over and start to spin around like a top on his side. These spells eventually became seizure like until the seizures became so bad that he was almost comatose. That is when I put the little guy down.

Most of my birds developed either tumors, neurological problems or Ocular Mareks

Beware of Chicken Math. She is a witch with a sense of humor!

 

[ShrekDawg]

Yep, usually the secondary problems with Marek's disease is what gets them given time and low resistance.

Out of my original flock of 18 birds, not one showed any signs of primary infection with MD. They all developed symptoms at one year or more of age except for one who developed a limp that I could never pinpoint to an injury although I had witnessed him fighting with another rooster and just thought it was due to that. He limped his entire life before dying from wasting at the somewhere around one year of age.

The funny thing, if you want to call it that, that I noticed with my birds is that the roosters were affected more than the pullets/hens were from the original flock. One developed neurological problems at the age of 3 months. I have pictures of him 'playing' with me. He would fly up and sit on my back or shoulder while I did chores and loved to be cuddled. He suddenly started to jump in the air, scream and run blindly around until he would fall over and start to spin around like a top on his side. These spells eventually became seizure like until the seizures became so bad that he was almost comatose. That is when I put the little guy down.

Most of my birds developed either tumors, neurological problems or Ocular Mareks

Beware of Chicken Math. She is a witch with a sense of humor!

Oh wow that’s so interesting!! My roosters seem to be most affected too and I too thought it was a fight at first with my first one. I’ve had to put down 3 now. Two last year about a month apart and then just last month another one. Of those 3, 2 of them were boys and the two last year were also both Welsummers oddly.

Also I had a cockerel drop dead last summer at around I think 8-9 months? I thought it was heat stroke as it had been unusually hot for a few days and he was huge and fluffy but complications from Mareks?

His son was the one I lost last month. His other son (the other bird’s half brother) and daughter are still going strong so far. I lost the other daughter to a hawk so won’t get to find out if she’s resistant unfortunately. These birds are around 7 months old now so

Mine have all gotten the classic leg paralysis, droopy wings, one had the gaping, etc. although I do also have one hen with ocular Mareks.

And oh yes, chicken math has me firmly in her grip hence not adding any more till some of these ones die or something.

 

[seminolewind]

I had a roo whose only sign was ocular. Then he started wasting and died. He watched over his girls almost til the end.

 

[Lil Halawakee]

Hi. Boy there is alot of good information given here on this thread! I was at BYC in those days when a bunch of us were just discovering it was not rare., and what's making our chickens die. At that time I had hatched 10 perfect GLPolish. 3 started limping, then gasping. One by one they got one leg paralysis and had to be put down. I cried my eyes out.
A few months ago my first hatched chicken died at 12 years old , never vaccinated. I found there were some older chickens in my flock that were never symptomatic. They lived a long life. From then on all chicks were vaccinated day 1 or 2 of life and kept under quarantine for 3-4 weeks. I had separate tops or aprons to use , washed my hands and tried to do most of their care first thing every day. Right now all my chickens are vaccinated (18) except for one red hen that was found wandering around my neighborhood. She was already an adult.

I buy my chicks already vaccinated at the hatchery. Or I do it. After you give a few injections , you will be an expert. My first ones were real hard for me. So I learned that moistening the downy injection area so I can see skin. Pinch up the skin and inject. Don't put the needle in far, just far enough. I don't hatch eggs anymore because I keep the roos and I have 6 right now, Silkies.

Breeding for resistance. Well I had a bunch of adult hens prior to Marek's that were not affected. I also had a hatched chick go to a clean home for 6 months, then came back to me when they decided to eat him. He was never symptomatic. So I think age has resistance just because of age.

Getting a Marek's vaccination is like a "safe" exposure that signals their immune system to be resistant. Exposure to the virus is the " unsafe method". Either way, their resistance is built because of an exposure , not birth. Some, I think, get resistant with age . I think it must be their general overall resistance. Chicks do not get exposed inside the chicken, and exposure does not penetrate an egg.

Marek's is known to be present for over 100 years. Over 100 years of scientific research has been done already including breeding for resistance. Try to find some research information that was not done with Dr. Google or the Chicken Lady.

Keep a closed flock. I broke that rule one time at a show for a cute silkie hen, and then my flock had Marek's.

Thank you for giving me this info and sharing your experience!! We have been vaccinating since last fall--and you are right. We are now old pros! I broke my closed flock rule only once, as well. I am still, since last summer, going through grief. My husband tries to make me feel better, but I beat myself up. It's the way it is now and I cannot rewind time. I do try to tell everyone I can: please, please keep vigilant. My bantams (Silkies, Frizzled Cochins, Seramas) were my pets. My babies. My joy. The grief has been horrible, as you well know.

The one thing I've concerned myself with and literally can find NO information on is this: the eggs. While it doesn't transfer to the egg, it *could* be on the shell when going into the incubator. Rough cleaning would only compromise the egg. I've spoken to two poultry scientists on this one, but here's the thing: they both claim that they just don't know the answer. Why we aren't doing more research on this is just beyond me.

I would add this: I found a lab in Texas (very reputable) that will feather and blood test. They send the kit, we send the samples, they give the answer. Before adding any chicken to any flock: I wish I had taken a swab and at least feather dusted/tested that chicken. It's $20. And would have saved my broken heart.

Thank you for telling me about your older gals. I have a ten-year-old Aracauna who is still kicking, even after exposure. Age does seem to matter. I'm trying to decide now whether or not to keep going, for my own pleasure of course, since selling them is too risky now. But. They made me happy.

Thank you, again,
Kat

 

[Lil Halawakee]

Thank you! Very nice of you! And I think that might work although it might make it hard to tell if you’re reaching your goals or not if they aren’t showing symptoms. Because basically, as sad as it is, you keep the ones that don’t die from it and show the most resistance to it and breed from those birds. So if none are showing symptoms it can be hard to know who is resistant. But I totally understand not wanting to lose any!!

Some breeds are more susceptible than others. I believe Silkies and Welsummers are some of the more susceptible ones (and there are others) and Egyptian Fayoumis are known to be resistant to Mareks. There are also some Leghorn strains that are as well though one of mine has ocular Mareks. She’s not from that strain though. I believe Ideal carries the Mareks resistant ones.

Typically with Mareks, it strikes around 3-8 months I believe (though it can strike older or younger) so you basically keep them into maturity, I guess until at least a year, I’m not entirely sure, to make sure they don’t succumb to it.

Most of the ones I have lost have been on the later end of that, around 6-7 months old. Once they get into adulthood they’re typically okay and then you would breed from those but yes, you would need a separate pen and/or to prepare for lots of losses if you go that route.

I believe @microchick and @EggSighted4Life breed for resistance or were trying to but @EggSighted4Life doesn’t vaccinate AFAIK so I don’t think she would be of help there but may be able to help you with breeding for resistance! I believe that you would have to pick one or the other though, unfortunately, as to breed for it you would have to cull those that show symptoms. If that’s too upsetting, you may choose to just buy vaccinated chicks from here on out (or vaccinate yourself).

This thread may be of some help.

https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/breeding-for-mareks-resistance.1274506/#post-20495506

Thank you! Yes, when it hit: all of my chickens who were around six months (POL) fell lame and died. The ones that made it through winter, but were super young, all just died. My second-best gal (a frizzle cochin) was over a year old--but then succumbed. None of my four-year-plus big gals (Marans, Aracauna, Americana) have yet to die. It's almost as if they are impervious. Even my older Silkies have made it thus far, knock on wood. It's rough on the heart, though: every day I go out there, I pray "please don't let anyone be dead." We have ordered Egyptian Fayoumis (with vaccinations) for April. Sadly, I hear that they don't like snuggles, but may be the toughest when it comes to this.

I can't thank you all enough for sharing your life with Marek's. I felt so alone until I posted here. Kat