I just took a hen to the vet. She was 5 months old, extremely underweight, and experiencing paralysis. Vet assumes Marek's and decided to put the bird down. She wasn't vaccinated we can guess because of getting the hen from a questionable source. Bird is being sent to UC Davis center to do postmortem investigation to confirm Marek's. What I'm wondering is that I should assume my flock has Marek's. I don't neccessarily want to cull unless I have to. My motivation is to have egg layers, and they're not laying and I have to assume it's because of the illness. So I want to get new pullets to get egg layers sooner than later. I will get well vaccinated pullets. Can I introduce them to the flock I currently have after the two weeks of quarantine without having to build a new coop for them? As we know about Marek's building a nother coop will not be the answer to protect them from the disease. Or is the only real option to Cull the flock. I have 3 chickens left after todays euthanization.
Welcome to BYC. I'm sorry about your hen. Hopefully Nambroth, Seminole Wind, or some of the other experts on Mareks will answer your post, but until then , I will say that most say that 2-3 weeks quarantine is best, completely away from any dust or dander from the other chickens as they will all be carriers. Even your new chickens will become carriers eventually. That said, many BYCers have Mareks disease in their flocks and deal with it every day. There are a number of threads that are ongoing with people sharing their knowledge and asking questions. Here are 3 links that may be helpful including the 2 ongoing threads: https://www.backyardchickens.com/a/the-great-big-giant-mareks-disease-faq https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/741957/not-an-emergency-mareks-in-the-flock https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/894589/moving-forward-breeding-for-resistance-to-mareks-disease
Hi Devo. Eggcessive gave you the best links we have. Whether you cull your Marek's birds or not, you will still have Marek's on your property for years. The hens you have can grow up to be great layers. If you add, get Marek's vaccinated chicks and keep them quarantined for at least 3 weeks. More is better. Strict quarantine. Vaccinated pullets are fine. But some hatcheries de-beak their pullets as well. So you got to ask about that. Bottom line is there is no sense in killing unsymptomatic hens. The virus will live on your property for years.
