Marek's Vaccinated Chicks Around Other Birds

[OrangeJuice]

I am going to be vaccinating chicks very soon and I have never kept chickens but instead pheasants, guinea fowl and parrots. From what i understand the marek's vaccine has a live strain of the virus in it. A strain that effects turkeys. Will the chicks pose a threat to my other birds after they are vaccinated? The birds would not be near each other but marek's is very contagious so it seems worth being paranoid about especially for the parrots.

 

[cowcreekgeek]

I am going to be vaccinating chicks very soon and I have never kept chickens but instead pheasants, guinea fowl and parrots. From what i understand the marek's vaccine has a live strain of the virus in it. A strain that effects turkeys. Will the chicks pose a threat to my other birds after they are vaccinated? The birds would not be near each other but marek's is very contagious so it seems worth being paranoid about especially for the parrots.

I would imagine the potential loss of your parrots would be enough to give good reason for such high concern. I'd consider consulting with aviarians <-- is that the right word for those that keep the birds at zoos 'n such? And, contacting breeders might give you a better idea of what can/can't affect/infect them. But, here's a few things that might give you some idea:

Excellent resource from the University of Maryland,
on the vaccination/medication of small flocks:
http://www.healthybirds.umd.edu/Dis...ication Programs fro Small Poultry Flocks.pdf

Similar document, from the University of Fl;orida IFAS Extension:
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/ps030



From the University of New Hampshire's Cooperative Extention
http://extension.unh.edu/resources/files/Resource000791_Rep813.pdf
Excerpt from a document titled: Merek's Disease

Prevention
• Breed for resistance.
• Good sanitation and ventilation.
• Brood chicks separately from adults until 5 months of age.
• Keep turkeys with chickens (this may help the chickens with Marek’s, but can lead to black
head disease in the turkeys).
• Vaccinate all chicks at 1 day old; keep chicks from exposure until immunity has developed, about 7 days.