Marek's or Avain Leukosis- coop/run sanitation

[Jezalilly]

And all my OG girls were supposedly vaccinated when I bought them as 2 day old babies. I let Joana hatch 10 eggs... those are the only mystery factors.

I didn't know the mommy and daddy of the eggs. I still have 2 of the 10.

 

[Weeg]

Hello, I'm so sorry your going through this. I lost my precious Smudge last year. After doing an at home necropsy, and sending her into the lab for histopathology, I found out that my flock had ALV. Its a huge bummer, no one ever wants to deal with it. I will say though, it had changed my chicken keeping forever, Smudge did. Your Parmesan has done the same for you, your flock will be better off for it.
I am doing the same protocol, closing my flock, (other than freezer birds) and practicing stick biosecurity to limit the spread. I know that Mareks can live in the soil for years, but I want to say that I read ALV is easier to get rid of. It dissipates from the environment faster, though I could be wrong. I agree with using Virkon, thats supposed to be a pretty good disinfectant. Clean out every bit of bedding, poop, feathers, anything that ever touched your birds. Dust, dander, vacuums out the entire coop until its clean as it was before chickens lived in it. Seriously. Then, rake and treat the soil, churn, treat, and repeat. You can't disinfect something until its cleaned first.
If it is Mareks, that my almost be easier. Ducks can't get Mareks disease, so some poultry keepers who had Mareks started keeping ducks instead encase there was still Mareks in the coop/run. If thats something your interested in, Mareks may almost be the better bet.
@charlotte-and-the-bees is also part of the ALV flock group. We're all in this together. Boost your flock immune system and they'll live a happy life.

 

[Jezalilly]

Parmesan was 3.5 years old and was the head chicken in charge of my 5 OGs. My girls live in a great environment and I had no knowledge these diseases were even a drama I needed to pay attention for signs.
I feel awful.

 

[charlotte-and-the-bees]

I'm so sorry for your losses. If you can, it may be worth having the vet send a sample out to confirm Marek's vs. ALV. ALV doesn't live as long in the environment. Unfortunately, I have both in my flock, despite original girls being vaccinated. I've read somewhere that Marek's vaccinations in ALV carriers can actually worsen outcome if exposed to Marek's (and it's everywhere). Likely about to lose my 3rd of 5 original girls in just a few months. I really hope you don't have both.

I think additional testing is worth it if you are interested to know about resting the land. But perhaps shouldn't matter in most cases if you vaccinate new chicks to Marek's. I'm not a Marek's expert, but we currently have a closed flock and don't know if I will be adding more. It's been devastating.

 

[Jezalilly]

I'm so sorry for your losses. If you can, it may be worth having the vet send a sample out to confirm Marek's vs. ALV. ALV doesn't live as long in the environment. Unfortunately, I have both in my flock, despite original girls being vaccinated. I've read somewhere that Marek's vaccinations in ALV carriers can actually worsen outcome if exposed to Marek's (and it's everywhere). Likely about to lose my 3rd of 5 original girls in just a few months. I really hope you don't have both.

I think additional testing is worth it if you are interested to know about resting the land. But perhaps shouldn't matter in most cases if you vaccinate new chicks to Marek's. I'm not a Marek's expert, but we currently have a closed flock and don't know if I will be adding more. It's been devastating.

I'm sorry that you are dealing with this... I just want to do the right thing for all my girls... current and future... moving forward.

 

[charlotte-and-the-bees]

I'm sorry that you are dealing with this... I just want to do the right thing for all my girls... current and future... moving forward.

Same here. I'd do anything to give these girls best quality of life. At another time I might be more optimistic, hopefulness ebbs and flows over here. If it's just ALV you might have good luck with your flock, especially if exposure happened later. I found a study awhile back that correlates age of exposure with mortality rates. 1 day old exposure was, I believe, >50%, while 8+ weeks was ~7%. @azygous has added older pullets to their flock rather successfully, though has had less success with hatching.

Marek's alone could be possible to manage with vaccination or disease resistance. Both ALV + Marek's is a bit more grim.

 

[Painted Calls]

Ok... I'd like to figure out if both are as difficult to eradicate... if so, then I need to do further testing on my girls to see which it is...

Marek's is. AVL is not.

 

[Painted Calls]

Parmesan was 3.5 years old and was the head chicken in charge of my 5 OGs. My girls live in a great environment and I had no knowledge these diseases were even a drama I needed to pay attention for signs.
I feel awful.

Do not feel bad. Accidents happen. You learn from your accidents and trials and then you soldier on with more knowledge.

This is why is it SO important to quarantine when buying new birds. Even then it's still a risk unfortunately.

 

[Tervuren]

Similar situation here, sorry you’re going through it as well. Lost my Cream Legbar, Fancy, to probable ALV/Mareks last month. She was 10 months old and the vet found her riddled with tumors during her necropsy. Like you my birds are vaccinated for Mareks and all are from the same hatchery. So far the other 4 are doing great and laying like champs this spring, which is a good sign. I’ve read ALV carriers don’t lay very well. Don’t have any advice just commiseration, but I’ll follow this thread to see what others have to say.

 

[Weeg]

Parmesan was 3.5 years old and was the head chicken in charge of my 5 OGs. My girls live in a great environment and I had no knowledge these diseases were even a drama I needed to pay attention for signs.
I feel awful.

Don't feel terrible. I knew they existed, but still didn't take all the nessasry precautions to avoid them. I thought about it like, "noooo, that couldn't' happen to me". I was wrong.
We all make mistakes, you will only learn and grow from this. I'm so worry for your loss, don't feel to bad, its hard but it gets better. Time heals all wounds.