Marek Vaccine

[farmland1]

Buying chicks from hatchery. The property where my chickens will be kept possibly had chickens and horses on it about a year ago. Its unknown if there was a Marek's problem or not. The hatchery basically discouraged the Marek vaccine, but the internet paints a very scary picture of the disease living for years in the soil. Do you recommend the vaccine or not?

Any thoughts on the vaccine safety for the chicks as well as the humans eventually consuming them or their eggs? Is one Marek vaccine better than or safer than another? If I don't have the hatchery vaccinate them and I change my mind later, where could I get the vaccine to vaccinate them?

Is it true that if you raise the chicks with turkey's they will be immune to Marek? Or is there any other natural way to prevent Marek in the flock?

Also, any recommendations for attempting to decontaminate the old chicken coup with an unknown history?

 

[Ch1cken Tender]

Buying chicks from hatchery. The property where my chickens will be kept possibly had chickens and horses on it about a year ago. Its unknown if there was a Marek's problem or not. The hatchery basically discouraged the Marek vaccine, but the internet paints a very scary picture of the disease living for years in the soil. Do you recommend the vaccine or not?

Any thoughts on the vaccine safety for the chicks as well as the humans eventually consuming them or their eggs? Is one Marek vaccine better than or safer than another? If I don't have the hatchery vaccinate them and I change my mind later, where could I get the vaccine to vaccinate them?

I most certainly recommend the vaccine, I’m sure it protected my old flock when one (maybe two) of my unvaccinated hens got Mareks. Also! I believe the vaccinated chickens boost the immune systems of any unvaccinated (try to vaccinate when possible though) chickens you get! When my hen got Mareks she was in a mixed flock of vaccinated and unvaccinated chickens and only she and possibly one other hen got the disease. I didn’t appreciate that as much as I do now.

 

[Stephine]

I definitely recommend the Marek’s vaccine. It is a terrible illness and nearly ubiquitous. Infected dander can travel 5 miles on the wind.

Buying chicks from hatchery. The property where my chickens will be kept possibly had chickens and horses on it about a year ago. Its unknown if there was a Marek's problem or not. The hatchery basically discouraged the Marek vaccine, but the internet paints a very scary picture of the disease living for years in the soil. Do you recommend the vaccine or not?

Any thoughts on the vaccine safety for the chicks as well as the humans eventually consuming them or their eggs?

The vaccine is perfectly safe for the chicks and the keepers. Eggs are just fine.

Is one Marek vaccine better than or safer than another?

Yes. Best vaccine is given to the chicks BEFORE they even hatch, in the egg. Only larger hatcheries have the means to do this. This vaccine is the most effective one. An alternative is vaccinating right after hatch. Even this is hard to manage for smaller hatcheries or breeders, because the vaccine has to be kept at a certain temperature, used quickly.

If I don't have the hatchery vaccinate them and I change my mind later, where could I get the vaccine to vaccinate them?

No, a vaccination at a later date is not effective.

Is it true that if you raise the chicks with turkey's they will be immune to Marek? Or is there any other natural way to prevent Marek in the flock?

There is a milder Mareks version that is a disease of turkeys. If chicks are exposed to it they might develop some immunity. Not certain, not very effective.

Also, any recommendations for attempting to decontaminate the old chicken coup with an unknown history?

Basically there is no way. It’s not just the coop, it’s the soil, too. It can stay in the soil for years.
So, with all that, you could buy unvaccinated chicks and see what happens. You might be lucky. If you have other people keeping chickens nearby, chances of that are lower.
Or you could just have chicks vaccinated and spare yourself the heartbreak, and your charges the suffering.
I always had vaccinated chicks and just these last couple years added some unvaccinated ones from a local hatchery, who claims they breed for immunity. As an aside, they also say they have no Mareks in their flock, which makes me wonder how they can be immune if they are never exposed. Anyway, I just lost a young pullet to Mareks (which I didn’t know we had) and it was so very sad. My unvaccinated hens from last year have all kinds of issues, just one looks fine out of four I got. I decided I will only add vaccinated chicks to my flock from now on. My second unvaccinated pullet from this spring seems unaffected, so I guess one could take the gamble, but looking at the overall health of my unvaccinated chickens, it just doesn’t seem fair to them.

 

[Masekhomestead]

The vaccine is perfectly safe for the chicks and the keepers. Eggs are just fine.

Yes. Best vaccine is given to the chicks BEFORE they even hatch, in the egg. Only larger hatcheries have the means to do this. This vaccine is the most effective one. An alternative is vaccinating right after hatch. Even this is hard to manage for smaller hatcheries or breeders, because the vaccine has to be kept at a certain temperature, used quickly.

No, a vaccination at a later date is not effective.

There is a milder Mareks version that is a disease of turkeys. If chicks are exposed to it they might develop some immunity. Not certain, not very effective.

Basically there is no way. It’s not just the coop, it’s the soil, too. It can stay in the soil for years.
So, with all that, you could buy unvaccinated chicks and see what happens. You might be lucky. If you have other people keeping chickens nearby, chances of that are lower.
Or you could just have chicks vaccinated and spare yourself the heartbreak, and your charges the suffering.
I always had vaccinated chicks and just these last couple years added some unvaccinated ones from a local hatchery, who claims they breed for immunity. As an aside, they also say they have no Mareks in their flock, which makes me wonder how they can be immune if they are never exposed. Anyway, I just lost a young pullet to Mareks (which I didn’t know we had) and it was so very sad. My unvaccinated hens from last year have all kinds of issues, just one looks fine out of four I got. I decided I will only add vaccinated chicks to my flock from now on. My second unvaccinated pullet from this spring seems unaffected, so I guess one could take the gamble, but looking at the overall health of my unvaccinated chickens, it just doesn’t seem fair to them.

So if I buy chicks from a hatchery I am leaning towards getting them vaccinated. Do you need to continuously vaccinate them or is it a one time thing?

 

[Stephine]

So if I buy chicks from a hatchery I am leaning towards getting them vaccinated. Do you need to continuously vaccinate them or is it a one time thing?

It’s a one time thing. They do it immediately after hatch.

 

[Stephine]

By the way, I lost my second unvaccinated pullet from this spring to Marek‘s as well. She got sick at point of lay.

 

[Red Mangrove]

The only chickens I've ever seen die from Marek's were vaccinated. It's a "leaky" vaccine which means it doesn't stop infection or transmission. It merely covers up symptoms, until the inevitable paralysis and death

The best way to get flock immunity is to free-range with full environmental exposure on day of hatch, for multiple generations. Natural selection will handle the rest

 

[Stephine]

The only chickens I've ever seen die from Marek's were vaccinated. It's a "leaky" vaccine which means it doesn't stop infection or transmission. It merely covers up symptoms, until the inevitable paralysis and death

The best way to get flock immunity is to free-range with full environmental exposure on day of hatch, for multiple generations. Natural selection will handle the rest

That is patently untrue. Yes, the vaccine is „leaky“ but it doesn’t cover up symptoms, it prevents symptoms (illness) in most chickens, though when exposed they do harbor and transmit the virus. They also transmit less of it than an unvaccinated exposed chicken. It doesn’t always work for every bird and there are different vaccines with varying efficacy. If you want to have immune chickens without vaccine, you need to protect your young birds completely from the virus for the first five months of their lives. They do acquire a natural immunity that way. Exposure at a young age spells disaster.
Note: there are different varieties of the virus out there with varying severity of disease though the most lethal ones have become more widely distributed over time.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

The only chickens I've ever seen die from Marek's were vaccinated

All of the ones I've lost from mareks have been unvaccinated. Occasionally I'll have a vaccinated one limp for a few weeks, before going back to appearing just fine, but every one I've lost to symptoms has been unvaccinated and from at least one unvaccinated parent

 

[Bkaye]

All of the ones I've lost from mareks have been unvaccinated. Occasionally I'll have a vaccinated one limp for a few weeks, before going back to appearing just fine, but every one I've lost to symptoms has been unvaccinated and from at least one unvaccinated parent

When you said from at least one unvaccinated parent are you still in your second generation? Have you hatched any of your send generation offspring successfully?

I’ve noticed my vaccinated offspring do better than my unvaccinated offspring as I haven’t had any of my unvaccinated offspring make it either.