Marek's question

[katie97010508]

Hi all, I had a flock of 3 young hens, all reportedly vaccinated against Marek's. Two died in the past month, necroscopy strongly suggestive of Marek's with tumors everywhere So sad.
But, we still have one remaining hen who has (so far) been healthy. She is lonely and we want to get her a friend or two. We were thinking a vaccinated, slightly older pullet would be best given the situation. Any tips? We know Marek's disease virus lives forever in the coop and our remainder chicken, if she lives, is likely a carrier.
Thoughts?

 

[Wyorp Rock]

I'm sorry that you are having trouble.

Let's see if @microchick is willing to offer you some suggestions.

 

[microchick]

Thanks for the tag @Wyorp Rock.

@katie97010508 I'm so sorry you are going through this. It isn't fun having a diagnosis of Marek's disease hanging over your flock but it isn't the end of the world either.

Personally, I would definitely go with a vaccinated hen as a companion for your surviving birds. It's tough dealing with this but I've had very good luck with vaccinated birds in my flock since discovering I was dealing with Marek's disease.

I'm not hatching this year but so far I have had 3 generations brooded with great success. The only failure I have had this year was a vaccinated hen that I lost due to some sort of reproductive problem, either internal laying or infection/tumors. She stopped laying and developed 'water belly'. I lost her two weeks ago. But she is my only loss of a vaccinated bird so far and I've been adding them to my flock for the past three years. My original vaccinated additions were bantam OEGBs and two years ago I added 5 Egyptian Fayoumis. I lost one Fayoumi hen to parasites. The rest are thriving and I had my first pure bred EF pullet hatch late last summer.

No way I would ever bring unvaccinated birds into my flock unless they were local birds within a 5 mile radius of our farm and were proven to be resistant to the strain of Marek's disease that you have in your area.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask. I'll do my best to answer.

 

[katie97010508]

Thanks both for your replies! We found a person who was highly recommended by the local specialty chicken store (bay area, sigh) who breeds chickens and vaccinates appropriately for Marek's. We are going to pick up 1-2 friends for our remaining hen tomorrow afternoon!
A few people have mentioned that getting a slightly older hen might be a good idea as the younger pullets are more likely to get visceral Marek's. Any thoughts about this? Our current chicken is 9 months old and there is a 9-10 month old available.
Thank you!!

 

[microchick]

From what I have read, if chickens are susceptible and exposed to MD they experience their first infection of the disease at around 9 weeks of age. If they survive that first infection, they remain carriers and will expire later on from tumors, neurological or infections caused by the MD weakening their immune system. My birds generally expired somewhere around the age of one although the eldest was almost 3 and died from complications of ocular Mareks disease.

The biggest hit I took was to my roosters. None lived past the age of one except one lone rooster who is now around 5 years of age. Old Man is from eggs I got from one of our Amish neighbors and hatched. He was hatched under a Marek's carrier hen and all of her chicks died at the age of one except him. I say that his genes are golden and they are.

I would probably go with hens that are older rather than younger. If they have survived to be 11-12 months of age and they are healthy and vaccinated, then you are safe.

Keep in mind though that even vaccinated birds are carriers once they are exposed. They just don't manifest the tumors that unvaccinated birds can get.

I changed that age. It should be 9 weeks of age not 9 months.

 

[clapping]

Thanks both for your replies! We found a person who was highly recommended by the local specialty chicken store (bay area, sigh) who breeds chickens and vaccinates appropriately for Marek's. We are going to pick up 1-2 friends for our remaining hen tomorrow afternoon!
A few people have mentioned that getting a slightly older hen might be a good idea as the younger pullets are more likely to get visceral Marek's. Any thoughts about this? Our current chicken is 9 months old and there is a 9-10 month old available.
Thank you!!

Hi There,

I know it's an older thread but I'm in the exact same situation as you, and in the Bay Area. We actually had three chicks where two turned out to be roosters, replaced them with two pullets and they both succumbed (or came to us with) Mereks, when they were supposed to be vaccinated. No idea why my original unvaccinated gal is not susceptible yet.

We went down the road of adopting some older gals who were vaccinated because someone was getting rid of them, but I believe they aren't long for this world either way.

Couple of questions, what place did you get the chickens and how has it worked out?
Thank you!!