MG in Hatcheries....

[Brunty_Farms]

Havn't let the MG thing go.... if anyone is still following this I'm having an NPIP rep out asap to do testing on my flock. I'm curious to what they say about hatcheries being positve for MG.

Just a little bit of info on MG I found from surfing the net...

1 out of 50 eggs from an MG positve flock will have a chick that test positive for the disease. If a hatchery hatches 5 million chicks from positve flocks... that would be 100,000 infected chicks being shipped out every year....

http://books.google.com/books?id=CY...hronic respiratory disease in poultry&f=false

 

[redhen]

I'm still interested in it! Get 'um Brunty!

 

[EweSheep]

I'd rather have MG resistant birds than MG free birds in case ONE MG positive bird might ruin the flock for me. I have never had birds that came down with MG nor do I want it. Like one said in here, to have MG free is like opening another can of worms when other diseases like Coryza being introduced indirectly to your flock. I can understand one wants a MG free flock because they have a business and can not support a great loss of birds.

I agree with Pips and yes, Teri is a lady!

I had a friend that bought chicks from Cackle Hatchery and just about ALL of her 75 of her birds came down with MG and CRD. Sure she was upset but know of the risks.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Quote:
For me when a layer gets MG they never hit their peak.... ever.... instead of 95% of the flock laying I have to settle for 80-85%. Which may not seem like a lot but in a perspective of one month that would be a difference of an average of 100 dozen eggs... at $3.50 a dozen, I'm taking a $350 hit / month. That's plenty of money to have me a little upset about this.

For broilers its a whole different ball game. Instead of them being ready in 6 weeks... it takes 9 weeks. If a flock of 200 broilers goes through 100 lbs a day for the last three weeks... your looking at an extra $420 added on to your cost. All that money lost... it's very aggrevating to say the least.

I understand where your coming from as healthy birds do develop immunities to certain diseases. But however for this particular respitory disease... there is no cure and the disease can relapse at any time. It's very hard to control this strain of respitory disease due to it's nature of traveling through wild birds.

As far as your friend dealing with Cackle... that should never stem back to a hatchery. A hatchery should have good enough bio-security and an MG - Flock. If the consumer wishes to expose those birds to MG than that is their choice. I for one... will never buy from a hatchery that isn't MG Negative and will never give anyone advice to do so either.

Any how... the saga continues...

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Ok... well today was the big day for my testing. I had a few test done including MG to see exactly what the deal is with my flocks. Hopefully the test comes back negative....

Out of 750 birds they tested 40 birds..... they take 2cc of blood / bird. Birds must be at least 4 months old to draw blood of this amount.

Here to find out I asked how much it would cost for me to get my birds tested every 90 days to get MG negative. I was told.... we don't know.... as your the first person in the state of Ohio to request this type of testing. I'm considered a backyard flock and not commercial. He and she said that many hatcheries and breeder flocks are MG- and get tested regularly but since I'm only dealing with less than 3,000 birds... I fall into another catagory.

It's really interesting that I'm the only one in my state to request this to be done to my flock. It must be a very hard thing to control in backyard flocks, but I'm willing to attempt it.

Test results should be in early next week. As of what was tested: Turkey's 10, Layers 20, broilers, 10

To be continued....

....

 

[pips&peeps]

#1, You did not get enough birds tested to be NPIP certified according to the guidelines.

You are supposed to have 30 birds or 10% of your flock, whichever is more. 10% of your flock would have been 75 birds.

#2, To be certified MG free, all birds in the flock must be tested every 90 days, not just a sampling. MG is not a covered test by the NPIP and will most likely come out of your pocket when all is said and done.

 

[verycherry]

I have to agree with Jean on this one, but I wouldn't have 2 years ago, when I was new to chickens.

Since my birds do go outside, and occassionally wild birds even fly through the coop, I think it would be pretty unwise for me to get birds from an MG free hatchery that came from birds never exposed to MG, and who's ancestors may have never been exposed to it.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

Broilers, layers, and turkey's are not all together so it's not a representation of one flock. But it's not exactly 10% either, regardless, the test were done randomly. If one has it, they all have it. However like I stated 40 birds were tested.... 10 turkey's and 30 chickens. Looks like the 30 came before the 10%???.... then they did the 10 turkey's seperate. Besides... are you like the NPIP police or something? Do you need to see my paperwork?

Come on, they were here for four hours, I think I have a little bit of a clue on what's going on and how it works... I did my research prior to them coming and asked about 50 questions when they were here.


If tested positive the whole flock will be destroyed and I will start over. I already had planned too as getting negative results for MG is the main goal. Regardless of cost.

This was my first test, if I test clean for MG.... than I'm certified. Regardless of what your implying... it's a done deal. However I need to be tested again in 90 days (which I stated in my post). Which if it is $50.00 a time that's $200 a year, I would gladly pay $200 / year. How was what they did a sampling? Again if birds from a certain flock test positive.... they are all positive in that flock? I'm not sure what your getting at.

Also, just because you order chicks from a hatchery doesn't guarantee you to have chicks that have been exposed to the the bacteria. There is no safe guard, more than likely you will see signs of sickness not until the birds are stressed. SO just because you order from an MG positive source doesn't guarantee that your birds will be immune to it, nor will they every be. This disease can relapse at anytime giving you plenty of unwanted headaches.

 

[Brunty_Farms]

As for the NPIP paperwork, I'm looking at it and I have Pollorum Typhoid marked as clean.

The AI and the MG is marked as monitored. I will get new paperwork with my test results if I test negative. However I do have the option to get tested once a year instead of every 90 days.

The difference:

Tested every 90 Days = M.G. Clean
Tested Once a year = M.G. Monitored

It seems to me the once a year test is more reasonable for me as I do not sell birds to other people at this time. I raise birds for eggs and meat so it's not as important to me to have a test every 90 days... but I will look into what I want to do when the results come back early next week.

 

[pips&peeps]

My point on the MG testing is that even if you test negative, you did not test all the birds on your property for it, and to my knowlege, to be "MG FREE" all birds must be tested not just some of them.

Why don't you call Andrew Rohrer at the Georgia NPIP Federal Office. His number is 770-922-3496. He is a really nice guy.

He can tell you exactly what the protocol is for how many birds are to be tested for the NPIP portion and what MG classification you qualify for. I do not believe that Subpart E can be classified as MG monitored; but, Andy will know for sure.
.