MG in flock. CULL?

[TheWannabeFarmer]

Hello everyone.

I am in desperate need of input on my current situation.

Back story:

Purchased some chickens from another person and quarantined them for about a month away from one of my current flocks. All seemed well, so I moved them into a holding pen that I have set up inside one of my coops as I was in the process of finishing up their new coop, and i planned on breeding them so wanted to not mix the hens with my rooster.

After being in this pen for a few days one of the new hens started to develop respiratory symptoms. It was mild ad first but then the other new birds also developed symptoms. Long story short I ended up culling the sickest one and getting her tested. Results came back that she had MG as well as infectious coryza.

I immediately culled the remainder of the new birds.

Total time of the new birds being in the same coop as my flock is about a month. There were also chicks in a pen beside the infected birds.

None of my birds are showing any signs of illness. The chicks are all growing well and look super healthy too..

So what the heck do I do??
Obviously the MG is an issue, but wouldn't my other birds and the chicks be showing signs of illness if it passed to them?

Or an even scarier thought, could my flock already have MG and when the new birds came, my flock infected them?? Would the chicks not be affected? The chicks are hatched from this flock.

I sell hatching eggs and chicks.. so now that I am aware of a potential problem I am very concerned as to what I should do!! I have multiple breeding coops on site, and hatching egg sales are my goal with my flocks!


Sorry for the long post!! Help!

 

[dawg53]

You're in a difficult situation for sure. I would not sell nor give away any birds whatsoever, chicks included.

For Coryza, symptoms appear in 3 days and can easily and quickly spread through a flock. You should already know the symptoms, see the link below.
For MG, the incubation period is 6 to 21 days depending on the strain.
Keep in mind that both diseases can be carried on your person; shoes, clothing, feeders/waterers, coops etc...and easily spread to other birds. Dont forget to sanitize the coop. MG can survive in the environment for only 3 days. I believe you might be able to repopulate the "sick" coop in about 3 weeks after sanitizing it due to the Coryza. However I'm not sure about the soil in the pen, perhaps 3 weeks as well. See the link below regarding Infectious Coryza, it might help.

You're going to have to closely observe your birds for the next 3 or 4 weeks for any and all symptoms. Then perhaps just after one month if NO birds are showing symptoms, you could possibly sell birds.
https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poultry/infectious-coryza/infectious-coryza-in-chickens

 

[TheWannabeFarmer]

You're in a difficult situation for sure. I would not sell nor give away any birds whatsoever, chicks included.

For Coryza, symptoms appear in 3 days and can easily and quickly spread through a flock. You should already know the symptoms, see the link below.
For MG, the incubation period is 6 to 21 days depending on the strain.
Keep in mind that both diseases can be carried on your person; shoes, clothing, feeders/waterers, coops etc...and easily spread to other birds. Dont forget to sanitize the coop. MG can survive in the environment for only 3 days. I believe you might be able to repopulate the "sick" coop in about 3 weeks after sanitizing it due to the Coryza. However I'm not sure about the soil in the pen, perhaps 3 weeks as well. See the link below regarding Infectious Coryza, it might help.

You're going to have to closely observe your birds for the next 3 or 4 weeks for any and all symptoms. Then perhaps just after one month if NO birds are showing symptoms, you could possibly sell birds.
https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poultry/infectious-coryza/infectious-coryza-in-chickens

So you think I should cull my flock and then add clean birds after a few weeks?

 

[dawg53]

Keep an eye on your birds that were in the same coop with the sick birds for one month.
Surely you'll see MG symptoms in about a weeks time frame. You can put stress on them; after 1 week, chase them around in the pen with a broom a few times on different days. That'll get them stressed for sure and you should see symptoms afterwards. Then send the sickest bird off for necropsy for verification.
You dont want to add new birds until you know for sure about your current flock. If they are positive for MG or Coryza, then you cull, and everything still needs to be sanitized.

 

[TheWannabeFarmer]

Keep an eye on your birds that were in the same coop with the sick birds for one month.
Surely you'll see MG symptoms in about a weeks time frame. You can put stress on them; after 1 week, chase them around in the pen with a broom a few times on different days. That'll get them stressed for sure and you should see symptoms afterwards. Then send the sickest bird off for necropsy for verification.
You dont want to add new birds until you know for sure about your current flock. If they are positive for MG or Coryza, then you cull, and everything still needs to be sanitized.

Ok shall do. They are all currently looking completely normal and are laying well. The chicks are also doing great, so I will purposefully stress them out a bit to see what happens. Thank you for your help.

 

[Debbie09011970]

I had Mycoplasma. I was told it we were quarantined for any and all birds on the property until their death. Then, we were quarantined for months after before we got new birds. We were told to assume that Mycoplasma is so contagious that ANYTHING on the property was under quarantine because it can be carried around on our shoes/clothes, etc.. There is a 99.99999% chance that anything that came in contact with your chickens had Mycoplasma--especially if they were in there a month with them. I had tons of birds that never showed symptoms yet they still had it. We were told there was a HUGE fine for getting rid of anything and, if the state finds out that you are selling those birds just because they don't look sick, I imagine you are going to be in alot of trouble. I wrote this with love--because I've been there--but you need to think hard of not selling any of these birds or their offspring.