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That comment is just spreading fear. Our vet said nothing of the sort, and in fact, said birds that are exposed to this and are "normal" and healthy are potentially good breeders because of the natural immunity. I asked if I should vaccinate my non-MM chicks and he said he did not see a reason to vaccinate everything. This virus is primarily passed hen to egg and through the hatcher.
Sadly other that have had positive test results today were told just that, all chicks must be culled and all hens that got sick with this will pass it on through the egg. Some of the reading I have done supports this, some supports what your vet has said. Really then the truth just may be that we don't know for sure.
This is the frustrating thing with disease, you get many conflicting facts and opinions. When I was in the middle of the AI outbreak not two vets or 'experts' on the subject came to the same conclusion. Sorry, but in this case, as with AI I would strongly go with the most conservative idea and I would cull all the chicks. Hopefully your adult flocks have not been exposed.
Don't say that there will not be disease spread based on one vet's opinions, you would hate for that to turn out to be wrong.
I am basing it on three vet opinions, all from the VDL. MN is known to be one of the leaders in veterinary medicine in the country. I trust them. MM actually told me the same thing.
I think the reports that your are reading, are purely from an economic standpoint. When outbreaks like this happen in large commercial operations, culling may indeed be the way to go due to egg loss, and future unthriftiness. I read all those definitions on the internet too, and I guess I interpreted it to mean cull any that show symptoms. If a chick doesn't show symptoms, how do you know it has it? It an adult bird doesn't show symptoms, how do you know an adult was exposed?
I think this thing is kind of like chicken pox used to be in people. Before the vaccine was introduced, once you had it, you were supposed to be immune and not get chicken pox again, but when you had the rash, you were contagious. You didn't get them again because your body carries the right antibodies to fight off the virus. And you don't spread chicken pox now because you don't have an active outbreak. Then, there are people like me that were around long before any vaccine and have never had chicken pox in my ripe old age of 29
. Some researchers say I have a natural immunity because my mother never had chicken pox and neither did any of my siblings but my father did and we were definitely exposed to it through cousins, classmates, etc.
Anyway, here most of us are talking about a small scale, backyard flock. Although I am not in the medical field, my brother is a highly educated research engineer in the medical field and I asked him about this disease. He agreed with our vet's conclusions as well. He said the birds that were introduced to the disease but proved resistent are the ones that you would want to keep in your flock. He also told me I should destroy any that did not make a quick recovery. Now, I haven't done that, exactly. I have a few that I am babying, and probably shouldn't be.
I guess cull if you want to, or think you have to do it. A lot of people that are a heck of a lot smarter than I am recommended that I shouldn't, so I guess I am going to go with that for now. They have been right about everything else so far...
