marek's?

[Chick CJ]

Can anyone tell me if it is possible for chicks to develop marek's disease when they have never been around any other chickens? I have five chicks who were brooded over and hatched by a bantam hen and have never been exposed to any other birds. Last week I was cleaning out their pen and one of the chicks I thought got hurt. She started screaming and seemed stuck almost and I thought she got her leg caught in the pen. I actually took her to the vet to have her looked at and the vet said it didn't seem like anything was broken and it might just be soft tissue damage. That was 7 days ago and she doesn't seem any better really. She is still not able to walk on it and seems in distress if I move it around too much. She eats and drinks and poops just fine. Any ideas as to how long, if it is just damaged, it should take to heal? She is an 8 week old bantam mix of some sort. I have kept her seperate from the other chicks since it happened.
Thanks,
CJ

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

mareks is all around and all chickens carry germs for mareks
but when they become effected that is how they act
personally I always destroyed the effected ones as they are giving the germs off in thewir dander
so shortly the others may sucum to the germs
is the bird Cocin? as feather leggs are very prone to mareks
email me for articles to read
or you can go to
google.com
and enter
wanted information on mareks disease
Glenda L Heywood
[email protected]

 

[Trailbo]

We are planning on selling chicks and hens in the near future and have seen many ads on Craigslist and other sites making comments asking if, or noting that, the chicks have been vaccinated against Marek's Disease. Is there a particular way to vaccinate or medication to use? Is this a regular practice when selling chicks and hens? What is entailed with this practice and is it something that needs to be addressed on a regular basis? We are currently using tetracycline hydrochloride soluble powder in the chicks water according to the instructions on the package. It says it is for control of CRD (chronic respiratory disease). What exactly is this and how do we know if a chicken has it? Does this work for other things too or no? Does this have any effect on Mareks Disease or is there something else we need to be giving them for that?

Travis

 

[ArizonaDesertChicks]

Quote:
It is possible for chickens to get Marek's even if they're not around other chickens (wild birds carry it too), but 8 weeks is too young to already have signs of marek's disease. It sounds to me as if your chick was injured. I hope her leg gets better soon.

 

[CityChicker]

There is no way any of us can say for sure what it would be. I will say though that about 90% of what you will read on this website about Marek's is absolutely incorrect. My advice if you want to really read up on it would be to google it and try to only read references from scholarly sites (for example .edu sites). Keep in mind though even when visiting university sites that a lot of the information is in reference to commercial poultry houses (although it can certainly be applied to private individuals as well, it is just not exactly the same environment).

Without going into extensive detail, yes, what you are describing can be a symptom of Marek's. If the bird does have it, the far and away most likely scenario is that it contracted it from one of your adult birds that is a carrier. No, all birds definitely do NOT carry Marek's though. Marek's is a Herpes virus. You will also read things on this forum like that it exists "everywhere" in the "dirt". Complete and utter nonsense. It can last a long time in the environment- bedding, dander, etc...but, it does not live forever nor does it just randomly occur in the middle of nowhere. It is a virus that comes from and is spread by birds and predominately their dander. Again, legitimate references to it being everywhere, are from sources describing the environments of commercial poultry houses. In that environment, it does exist everywhere and is hard to eradicate. Also, your bird *is* most definitely old enough to be showing signs of Marek's.

I can't really say what I would do with the bird. You will have to go with what you are comfortable with. If it were me and I thought it had Marek's, or even if it were an injury it wasn't healing from, I would probably cull it and vaccinate all chicks in the future.

 

[eggchel]

http://www.organic-vet.reading.ac.uk/Poultryweb/disease/marek/marek1.htm

From:
http://msucares.com/poultry/diseases/disviral.htm :
Quote:

 

[CityChicker]

That's a great link, Eggchel (the top one). Thank you for posting that! I am going to bookmark that site and go back when I have time and read more. It's funny when they make reference to "all-in-all-out" and "disinfecting between batches", it is still a throwback to the bulk of the research being aimed at commercial poultry producers. The average small flock owner just doesn't operate like that, as in buying all their chickens at the same time, growing them, and then processing them all at the same time leaving no chickens left on site between batches. People obviously do that at times when they raise meaties, but even then that is generally just one aspect of a person's poultry keeping. It's almost impossible to operate like that in a home flock where you may have meat birds, pet birds, layers, etc... It is just a setting completely unlike a commercial setting. Anyway, it looks like that site has some great information.

One point that I really disagree a lot with, even with some of the academic sites, is the prevalence of Marek's. Everything I have learned makes me think that in the context of private chicken keepers, that it is not at all true that it is prevalent. Of course, it is true to some extent among commercial flocks (although, these days with vaccination I think it is far less significant even among commercial growers). Backyard chicken keepers though I don't think are seeing major issues with Marek's in this day and age and it's certainly not in "everyone's" flock. The way Marek's is transmitted just does not lend itself well for transmission to *most* small backyard flocks. That is just my opinion though and I'm sure other people might disagree.

 

[Mahonri]

I was fine until I bought a pair of birds from someone who had Mareks in their flock.

I have had three die from it now in the past year... the only ones who hadn't been vaccinated.

I've tried to disinfect the coop, put oxine in the run.

I just have to vaccinate now.

 

[Chick CJ]

Well, thanks everyone for your responses. I am always comforted when I bring something to this forum and you all respond! Unfortunately we had to cull Sunny today.

She took a serious turn for the worse last night and kept having what looked like seizures of some sort. It just seemed like the kinder thing to put her out of her misery. She was the most beautiful, sweet chicky I had and we are both very sad over it but I had to think of the rest of my girls also. I am really not convinced it was mareks as she really didn't have the same symptoms. I cleaned and disinfected everything she came into contact with. Hopefully whatever happened to her will not happen to the others.
Thanks, CJ