MG Diagnosis based on Necropsy what about remaining birds?

[tommysgirl]

I had a flock of about 35...20 of them chicks from this winter/spring when I had an illness outbreak. I culled all sick birds, bleached the daylights out of the pen where all of the affected birds had lived and sent my patient 0 to UCD for necropsy.

The diagnosis came back MG and Coryza and I began doing research. For both conditions I have found many scholarly articles that say that affected birds who are no longer symptomatic are still carriers. I do not have any of those because I culled any bird that showed ANY sign of eye bubbles, puffiness lethargy etc.

I do have the 28 birds who remain. They are active and lively and healthy. They all range together. I have not found any academic, scholarly articles that tell me if these guys are carriers. Popular wisdom on BYC is that it is the case and I am currently operating under that assumption but I would love to know, and I would like a citation please of any sources that can accurately give me the answer to my question: Are birds who have shared yard and/or range space with birds who became ill with MG/Coryza but did NOT show any signs of illness themselves carriers of the diseases for life?


Thanks

 

[dawg53]

Randomly select a few birds out of your flock; get blood drawn from them and tested for MG. Then you'll have your answer.

 

[tommysgirl]

Randomly select a few birds out of your flock; get blood drawn from them and tested for MG. Then you'll have your answer.

Thanks Dawg. A Great Idea...If I do that a few times over the course of the next 18 mos or so I should get a clear picture.