I am copying an email I received. I hope the sender doesn't mind, I have deleted identifying info so I do not disrespect the sender. I think this is valuable info and echoes the info Jean(pips&peeps, except she recommends vaccines, especially if you exhibit birds, and I agree 100%) shared with me about how to deal with this. This is such a supportive community and I hope the info that everyone shares can help save/preserve someone elses flock.
I did obtain new birds....I have been questioned about it. I have these birds completely separate from everything else and since they are from Greenfire they should be vaccinated agains Mareks, I will confirm and if not I will vaccinate myself. We are taking this day by day and figuring it out as we go. We had big plans for this year and don't want to quit now, I still have more birds coming from Greenfire so they will be housed with these Isbars we just got. We are going with the approach that is mentioned in the following e-mail, we are going to breed for resistance but at the same time we are vaccinating. We will have a sterile hatch outbuilding if we decide to hatch chicks. I never intended on selling chicks so that is not a concern of mine. If I decide to sell eggs then I also don't need to worry about it, since it does not transfer.
enough of my babbling
here is the e-mail - with my statement added in bold
"I am a breeder of exhibition (insert breed
) for 19 years .
I had a significant problem with Mareks 17 years ago ,I tried vacination and still had the problem.
I made contact with Intervet the vacine manufacture who came and did a field trial by taking blood samples.
The conclusions were that the vaccine had been correctly administerd ,however the chicks still caught the virus from the dust and feather dander before the vaccine had a chance to do its job.
Which is how my vet suspects my birds caught it
The recommendation is to hatch and rear all chicks in virgin premises where no parent birds have ever been.
This I did without vaccination ,You then need to keep them away from parent birds for at least 12 weeks.You will still lose the odd bird ,however over the years I have continued with this prcedure and it has worked.
Also you must not use or transfer any equipment from parent bird housing.
Over a period of years you wil buildup immunity ,however still carry out the same process to this day.
Another factor is you must not subject the birds to any stress and keep high levels of vitamin C .
The disease in my case always manivested itself at maturity of the birds with pullets more susceptable than cockerels.
This year l have rised 60 plus chicks with the first hatched on the 2nd March 2011.
With no losses at this point
Best wishes "
what I find extremely interesting is I had 21 orpingtons (victims, not the starters), I would have guessed I had an equal pullet/cockeral ratio. I now have 15 left, 4 are definite pullets and 1 other is possibly a pullet(new to the orps
) . So now I have at least 10 cockerals that can't leave my property. I need to decide which to keep as possibles because these boys eat so much food. I find it interesting that pullets/hens are so sensitive. Shipped hatching eggs seem more delicate(hence high cockeral ratio), the pullets are more susceptible to disease, and they are so much more sensitive to trauma. We have really whacked some cockerals in the past and they keep coming....a hen got bumped by another bird and died from the head trauma....just interesting observations to me