Moving Forward- Breeding for Resistance to Marek's Disease

[rebrascora]

Well I've got my first Marek's exhibiting chick of the season and of course it's a young pullet. She's nearly 8 weeks old and has been lame for about 4 days and looks to have some visual impairment too, but she is holding her own at the moment and still free ranging with her siblings and getting up onto a 6ft roost at night with her mother so, apart from ensuring that she gets plenty to eat, I'm not intervening just yet. She's a welsummer/legbar cross and interestingly her biological parents are down here at home in a separate location away from the main flock at the yard that have been exposed to Marek's. although she has been broody reared within the Marek's flock. She has several full brothers and sisters also being broody raised in the main flock, so it will be interesting to see if they are more susceptible. I must confess, I didn't give it a lot of thought when I was setting the eggs that the parent birds probably hadn't been exposed. I've had so many broody hens this season, I have struggled to find eggs for them all that I wanted to hatch and with the Marek's being so minimal last year I didn't give it much thought.

So far out of 45 chicks broody reared this season, this is the first (hopefully only one..... you have got to love my optimism) to show any symptoms. I lost 3 lavender pekins (bantam cochins) that died suddenly at 8-10 days but I'm reasonably confident that was not Marek's related as just too young and no symptoms, just suddenly stopped eating and sat for half a day and passed or I found them dead in the morning....thinking maybe genetic as only the lavender ones died and not any other colours.

Anyway, I'm hoping this is another minor blip like last year. Sadly the pullet that exhibited symptoms last year (a dropped wing) made it to a year old and then had a second attack and died, but all the others of that generation are fine. I also have a sibling of my first ever Marek's bird that has a badly swollen abdomen and my gut feeling is that it is a massive abdominal tumour and will have to be culled soon. It could be internal laying but she has been gradually getting worse for the past 6 months and whilst she is still free ranging and eating and roosting and has a reasonable quality of life, the size of the swelling is getting to the point that she won't manage much longer and I know I should end it before that point arrives.

Anyway, on the whole, so far things are not too bad but we are fast approaching the time of year when they are more susceptible. Just wondering how everyone else is doing as there haven't been any updates to the thread recently..... maybe the rest of you are not wanting to tempt fate..... hopefully no news is good news though?

Regards

Barbara

 

[IACraig]

I have not had any losses this year. I dont want to wake the beast by saying his name, Marek's. Brought in 3 mature hens and a rooster. Raised 3 pullets who should be laying by now. Got a broody with 9 chicks at 1 week old. Even have a rooster who is creating a stressfull situation, but I need to hatch eggs.

Still not sure I understand what was happening last year, just hoping it stays gone.

 

[Bospro]

Interesting article on Marek's Vaccine.

http://www.pbs.org/newshour/updates/tthis-chicken-vaccine-makes-virus-dangerous/

 

[rebrascora]

Interesting article and it might explain why our Marek's outbreaks here in the UK seem to be much less virulent than those I have read about suffered by US members, as I think vaccination is much less common here perhaps because we don't seem to have the huge hatcheries that sell to the general public like there are in the States. Most of us hobby poultry keepers in the UK buy from local breeders which aren't producing sufficient chicks to make vaccination worth while.

Sadly a few days ago, I had to cull the young pullet that I mentioned in my previous post. She was still eating but she was so badly twisted it wasn't fair to let her go on suffering any longer. So that's one down to Marek's so far this season.

 

[lalaland]

well, the 8 broody hatched chicks are doing fine so far, although I culled the two cockerels last week. The remaining 5 pullets are about at point of lay, and looking good. Guess these next few weeks will be critical. Keeping my fingers crossed......and yes, Rebrascora, I love your optimism!

 

[rebrascora]

@lalaland

Good to hear that things are going smoothly so far for you. Hoping it continues. As you say, point of lay is a critical time.

My optimism was short lived but things are not too bad. I had two more develop paralysis a fortnight ago. A pretty little mixed breed pullet and a bantam pekin (cochin) cockerel. The cockerel is scheduled to be culled anyway and he was in the worst state of the two with it, but I thought I would keep him with her for companionship as I have found that isolating them depresses them and they go downhill fast. Sod's law.... the cockerel has made a miraculous recovery and you can't tell he was sick at all, but the pullet declined and died, so I have now had 3 out of 56 chicks with Marek's symptoms so far this year and lost 2. Still not bad odds in the scheme of things. I've also lost 4 to failure to thrive/genetic deformity within the first few days or weeks of life but I can confidently rule out Marek's on those.

 

[lalaland]

keeping my fingers crossed it is just a blip for you.....

 

[spiderlady]

Hi all. Ive been reading through this thread and just want to say thanks and good luck to all who have posted. Im relatively new to chicken keeping and Ive been dealing with this disease since last spring when I started my flock. I was wanting to breed purebred Orloffs but they seem to be more susceptible than the mutts and hatchery birds so all my best ones have been taken by mareks. I was able to hatch a few barnyard babies this summer and have lost 4 so far, with 2 pullets and 2 cockerals remaining. They are very thin but acting normal, so time will yet tell if they will make it. I cant breed for resistence without birds to breed! Im wondering if its all worth it though if in the long run you have a healthy flock but they are still "carrying" the disease? Still having to worry about spreading it around inadvertently, avoiding fairs and poultry shows, not being able to sell or trade?? Do you have to keep a closed flock Forever??

 

[lalaland]

Hi Spiderlady,
So sorry that you have reason to be on this thread, and sorry to hear about your flock.

,After mareks in my flock, I introduced turkey litter with turkey feathers and turkey droppings into the run and coop Ithe feathers are the most helpful). I was advised against the turkey litter by the university vet professor who diagnosed mareks in my flock via necropsy, and is very well respected . He advised so on the basis that I could introduce new pathogens to the flock from the turkeys. I was advised to try the turkey littler by others who had good results with this, and at the time I did research the idea but have totally forgotten what I learned from that research - but it made me decide to try it. I also waited til I had a year free of any apparent marek deaths before letting broodies hatch

Anyway, whether it was luck, or a somewhat non-virulent form of mareks, or the turkey litter, I haven't had problems since. I introduced some point of lay pullets last fall, and all are still healthy. the chicks hatched this spring are now at point of lay and apparently healthy. So there is hope!

About avoiding poultry shows, fairs, etc....I personally would for fear for my flock, and because I wouldn't want to introduce anything to anyone else's flock. Having said that, a breeder I know who has gorgeous birds has a much more cavalier approach - she says mareks is everywhere, and if she finds chickens with any symptoms, she immediately culls. This doesn't prevent her from going to shows, or selling her birds. She has large flocks (100 or more) and says all breeders probably have it but none discuss it.

I don't know. I think her approach ends up with your experience.....but I am afraid it is a somewhat common response from some breeders.

 

[spiderlady]

Thanks for sharing your experience lalaland! Its definitely encouraging to hear from others who are/have dealt with this. Is the turkey stuff supposed to introduce a less virulent form of the disease to youngsters to boost their immunity, similar to how the vaccine works? Wouldnt they have to be from infected turkeys? I dont actually havr any turkeys but could try getting some next spring. I dont have a place to keep them separately from the chickens though so the feathers and litter would be shared anyway

I dont cull a the first show of symptoms per se since it sometimes presents simply as wasting, and so its hard to say if some qre just on the thin side or starteling to waste away. What Ive been doing this yearbis cull at the first show of behavioural changes (acting sick) accompanied by wasting OR obvious manifestations of marecks like leg weakness/wobbling. Some.have just been thin and then dead, without going down in the legs at all. But I dont trust my instincts enough on whether they are mareks sick vs just not thriving well to want to cull sooner. So probably lots of virus shed on my ground. I guess I should wait a year before trying to hatch more. I dont want to keep feeding and caring for chickens that I will eventually kill and not eat. Its been such a huge investment with little payoffs in the way of eggs/meat. We are still getting eggs from our original few hens which were probably vaccinated. But we have fed many more only to lose them in the end I know everyone here understands that though so.. Sob story over!

I did try st. Johns Wort on one very valuable Orloff hen this spring and it def kept her hanging on for much longer with oly the slightest weakness in her legs that most would not notice . But at some point she started to show the sick behavior (huddled posture, less active) and so I culled. So with a different dose or delivery of the herb maybe it would do more, but I just decided it was too much work to catch and medicate a chicken twice a day, so I probably wont try it again. Still I wanted to put that out there in case anyone else was wondering about it. I used several drops of the tincture form in the mouth twice a day.