Marek's & My Flock

[tacosta1009]

Hi, all.

I just needed to share my situation with people who will understand. I've been keeping chickens for 1.5 years, not long. The learning curve at times has been steep, and so has the joy!

As we speak, I believe I may have made the mistake of introducing a rooster with Marek's to my flock. I did everything I knew to do, except not bring in a new chicken to my established flock. I quarantined him for 60 days, ran fecals on him, and even took him to the vet before I began to integrate him. Then one week later one of my hens started stumbling around and walking like she was drunk. I isolated her and called the local extension office, who, of course, are suspecting Marek's. Today I noticed another one of my hens has a wing that's slightly drooping, and she had a hard time getting up the stairs into the coop tonight.

Tomorrow a member of the local poultry lab is coming to pick up the originally symptomatic bird. Unfortunately, she will be put down and tested for Marek's.

I'm devastated. I love my flock and have worked so hard to see them thrive, enjoy their little lives, and stay healthy. I am beating myself up for bringing in a rooster that wasn't 100% to begin with (he was swarming with mites and had coccidiosis). I just can't imagine watching one bird at a time go down.

Just needed to share...

So heartbroken.

 

[Pentatonchix]

Oh no Wishing you and your flock all the luck and love in the world!

 

[Eggcessive]

So sorry that you are dealing with possible Mareks. The more I have learned about so many chicken diseases, Imwould never again bring in another bird from another flock, even a friend’s. I hope that it turns out not to be Mareks disease. One thing I might add, is that most times a chicken would not show signs of Mareks until a minimum of 3 or more weeks of exposure to the virus carried in the feather dander. But it might be hard to contain that even while in quarantine with how dust and dander can be in the environment.

 

[Sonya9]

Don't panic. There are several different strains of Mareks that range from mild to severe. Course once it gets introduced to a flock one has to assume everyone has it but with milder strains birds can live perfectly normal and healthy lives.

My flock got infected by it 6 years ago and I have not had a bird get sick from it for 4.5 years after I made some flock management changes. It is a herpes virus and like most herpes viruses it can stay dormant for a lifetime, but can also be triggered by stress. Adolescent chicks going through flock integration stress are the most vulnerable as are adults that suffer from another injury or illness and get stressed out.

Initially I lost some adolescent birds to it. Now only introduce chicks using a broody (so they are raised with the flock from the start and do not undergo any integration stress). I also got a script for a human antiherpes med from my vet (Valtrex, it is cheap and generic) and if any of my birds gets sick or injured I dose them with a small amount as a preventative. Once symptoms appear it is very hard to reverse them so prevention is key.

I live in Georgia and the state vet in our area says most all of the flocks around here have it and most people never realize it. For future reference avoid buying birds that have been vaccinated as the Mareks vaccine can create asymptomatic carriers which can introduce very hot/deadly strains to new flocks. The vaccine doesn't give them the virus, but allows them to catch the virus and spread it to other birds.

 

[Eggcessive]

Mareks exposure has to be for at least 3 weeks. Baby chicks never have symptoms until at least 3 weeks of age, but most do not show symptoms until later. I would wait until your necropsy results and testing come back to decide what to do. Hopefully, it is not Mareks. What is your location? Mareks is said to be everywhere in the world. We don’t see it in our area, but it is very prevalent in certain parts of the country.

 

[tacosta1009]

So sorry that you are dealing with possible Mareks. The more I have learned about so many chicken diseases, Imwould never again bring in another bird from another flock, even a friend’s. I hope that it turns out not to be Mareks disease. One thing I might add, is that most times a chicken would not show signs of Mareks until a minimum of 3 or more weeks of exposure to the virus carried in the feather dander. But it might be hard to contain that even while in quarantine with how dust and dander can be in the environment.

Dont I wish hindsight wasn’t always sooo costly!

 

[tacosta1009]

Don't panic. There are several different strains of Mareks that range from mild to severe. Course once it gets introduced to a flock one has to assume everyone has it but with milder strains birds can live perfectly normal and healthy lives.

My flock got infected by it 6 years ago and I have not had a bird get sick from it for 4.5 years after I made some flock management changes. It is a herpes virus and like most herpes viruses it can stay dormant for a lifetime, but can also be triggered by stress. Adolescent chicks going through flock integration stress are the most vulnerable as are adults that suffer from another injury or illness and get stressed out.

Initially I lost some adolescent birds to it. Now only introduce chicks using a broody (so they are raised with the flock from the start and do not undergo any integration stress). I also got a script for a human antiherpes med from my vet (Valtrex, it is cheap and generic) and if any of my birds gets sick or injured I dose them with a small amount as a preventative. Once symptoms appear it is very hard to reverse them so prevention is key.

I live in Georgia and the state vet in our area says most all of the flocks around here have it and most people never realize it. For future reference avoid buying birds that have been vaccinated as the Mareks vaccine can create asymptomatic carriers which can introduce very hot/deadly strains to new flocks. The vaccine doesn't give them the virus, but allows them to catch the virus and spread it to other birds.

I live in Georgia too, and I got the same feedback— lots of Marek’s. I love the idea of the immune booster!

Do I just give up on the symptomatic birds? Is there anything I should be doing?

 

[orrpeople]

I agree that you may have already had it in your flock before the rooster came, but his presence may have triggered the stress reaction that often creates outbreaks.

I also agree that, although an outbreak can be heartbreaking, many, many folks (who know their flocks have it) have a lot of success keeping chickens - so please don't give up hope!

 

[tacosta1009]

First off so sorry you are a member of the Marek's in my flock club.

For a lot of us there are no vets that are willing to treat chickens so getting an RX for anything let alone an anti-herpes drug is pretty much a lost cause. Plus I would hesitate to eat meat or eggs from a bird being treated with any anti-viral drug. What they eat goes into their system and there is enough trouble with antibiotic resistant infections in humans thanks to the indiscriminate use of antibiotics in the meat we eat. We don't need resistance to the antiviral drugs also.

Personally, I argued pro and con with myself about vaccinated vs non vaccinated birds and finally went with introducing vaccinated birds into my flock. So far I have had no losses from the vaccinated birds who are now over 3 years old (some of them) nor from their current offspring. I hesitate to say that it is working for me and my flock but it does look promising and frankly if it is a choice between vaccinated birds and letting my flock slowly die out from MD, I'm going with vaccinated birds.

What I'm saying is that IMHO with Marek's disease there is no one size fits all approach to dealing with it. You have to do what is right for your particular situation and yes, it takes some experimenting. Some things work and some don't.

What you need to remember is a lot of us are on our own without a vet who is willing to work on poultry unless they are dealing with a large meat bird or egg producing situation where it is worth their while to offer treatment.

I'm amazed that nobody has mentioned Egyptian Fayoumis as flock members. Look them up, please and read about them. They aren't cute like the Orpingtons or the rabid egg producers that Easter Eggers are but they are a viable solution for dealing with Marek's Disease.

Thank you so much for all this good information, and I had NO idea that the Egyptian Fayoumis were resistant. I will definitely look into them.

I'm really rooting for the ladies and pulling through.

 

[microchick]

My pleasure. I am attempting to cross breed the genetically resistant Fayoumis with local resistant birds that I've hatched from fertile eggs with the hopes of increasing the barnyard mix birds' resistance even more. I've hatched my first batch of cross breeds last year and not only are they striking birds but they are so far so good, healthy.

One of the Fayoumi Amish Barnyard cross cockerels at 4 months.

My Fayoumi rooster King Tut with two Amish Barnyard cross cockerels and one of the third generation OEGB SDW cockerels from vaccinated parentage.

What you read about Fayoumis in the breed description is spot on. The cockerel chicks will start to crow as early as 5 weeks and they mature at a faster rate than other breeds of birds. They are extremely heat resistant and so far as long as they are kept inside, mine are resistant to cold. We are expecting -10+ degree lows this weekend so it will be the big test for them but so far they are doing well.

They also have big mouths. The roosters love to crow and the hens can shriek like a banshee when they want to putting most guineas to shame. One member here on BYC describes them as velociraptors in full open mouth scream and that pretty much is what they sound like....straight from Jurassic Park.

There are studies ongoing in several locations that are trying to discover what makes these birds resistant to MD. I hope they can find out their secret so it can be passed on to all chicken breeds.