Not an Emergency...Marek's in the Flock

[seminolewind]

well, I've made it through two whole months and a week without anyone getting sick or dying. One of the bo's seems a bit underweight, but she still isn't a year old yet.

this will sound funny, but here in Minnesota the snow is gone and there has been a teeny bit of green grass - so the flocks's droppings are back to summer normal - big, green, capped with the white. After the winter and after all the looser stools tinged with blood/intestinal droppings, it makes me unreasonably happy to see such normal poop!

I'm thinking of trying to get some turkey litter to add to the run - its time to replenish it - hanging on to that tale that the turkey exposure helps with the flock's immunity. I don't logically understand how that works, but have had enough people who have had mareks in their flocks who have then added turkeys and had no further problems. worth a shot!

here's hoping everyone has healthy flocks.

Seminole, how are the chicks doing?

Or add some Fayoumis.

Chicks are doing great. They are 3 weeks old and I think I'm going to vaccinate a second time. Only because I'm terrified I may have vaccinated fuzz instead of skin. One chick is not being normal. So I'm tubing for now.

 

[seminolewind]

Ocho, I think whatever I read about Marek's is most common-least common, Most likely - least likely. Truth is, only experience shows you exactly what rules Marek's does not follow.

I've had a batch of chicks start getting paralysis at 6 weeks, one or two a week. My others have not fallen into that category. My first was 18 months old and had grey eye, and paralysis that worked it's way from the legs up to the neck, and that lack of depth perception. I had a 2 year old succumb to paralysis and no depth perception right before the chicks started dying. I recently had a one year old hatchery vaccinated hen just found dead one day -and was dx'd with Mareks. And 2 eight month old cockerels get paralysis. And a year old roo that was noted to have an oval eye pupil one day, and wasted away til death. I made a point of making him royal meals til he died.

Immunosuppression is the second major problem. I think I could have saved a lot of chickens if I had treated for everything. Just subclinical like a low grade infection with vague symptoms.

A while ago we had had a conversation about milestones. Crossing your fingers at 6 weeks, 4 months, 8 months, and a cautious sigh of relief. I've lost most I think prior to 8 months old.

 

[seminolewind]

My February pullets are just turning 9 weeks old. They were vaccinated at 2 1/2 weeks and then again at 6 weeks. So, their immune systems have had a full 6 weeks to make antibodies since the first vaccine. The chicks have been living in my family room and go to a grow up pen in the front yard during the day. The other chickens don't have access to the front yard. My questions is: at this point, is it safe to put the pullets out with the rest of the flock for a few hours of free ranging? There are only two of them, and they are very under-socialized due to the fact that they have spent so much time in the house hanging out on the back of the sofa. I'd like to get them living like chickens as soon as possible. At the same time, I don't want them getting Marek's either.

Whether they get Marek's, is most likely out of your hands. But I do think it's a good idea to get out with a flock for a few hours a day, it does lessen exposure and that's important. Actually having exposure, but not too much at first.

 

[ochochicas]

I think the answer is that we are never going to be able to say "it's safe" as such, especially as they weren't vaccinated at hatch by the sound of it, but sooner or later I assume it is your intention to integrate them and I would say that the later you leave it, the more stressful it will become which as we know can trigger Mareks. Is it possible to perhaps introduce one of your healthiest chickens to their enclosure for a few supervised hours as a starting point for integration.

The chicks weren't vaccinated at hatch because I ordered the vaccine and it took forever to get here. I did them as soon as it got here, but they were 18 days old by then

Today the little chicken tractor was moved to the side yard near where they older chickens get their scratch. The 9 week old chicks seemed more interested in eating and wanting to check out the other birds. We'll move them a bit closer each afternoon until they are next to the barn. It is still freezing here at night, so i can't put them out until I get home from work. They still get 4 hours outside, and this weekend hopefully they will start to free range. And I don't have any "healthy" birds. Wish I could say otherwise.

 

[ochochicas]

Happy day and sad day today.

My "Marek's hatch" from November had two Australorp cross pullets that I kept. They are both huge birds and almost 23 weeks. Elvira laid her first egg today. A beautiful, shiny green eggs (her dad is an EE). It seems to me that the Australorps have good resistance to Marek's, at least in my birds.

Then off to the hospital ward to check on the sisters to the Australorps. My pullet Little Loca, who has been having ups and downs for weeks, was laying in the hay and would not stand up. Yesterday she was running around and eating everything in sight. I tubed her with some vitamins and water and a little food. She would not eat or drink or walk. How odd that she crashed so quickly. I brought her into the house for the night and could hear her trying to walk around in her cage. She was stuck in the corner so I took her out and put her on some paper and went to get her some more food. She was doing something strange with her head and would turn it in a jerky fashion. I tapped on her bowl of food, which perked her up. She started to peck at the newspaper and couldn't find the food. It was apparent that she was completely blind. I checked her pupils with a flashlight and there was no constriction in either eye. She must have been so confused. I took her outside and culled her since there was no point in letting her sit blindly in the cage all night.

That just leaves two of her sisters (both Ameraucana x legbar) that will probably go soon. One has been sickly for a week and the other seems to have started limping on her left leg today. Part of me will be relieved when they are all gone so I won't have to wait for the next one to get sick.

I've picked out more pullets from my March hatch to keep to replace the Marek's batch. That is the only up-side to the disease...more chicks!

 

[Akrnaf2]

This is the connection between Turkeys and the immunity of Chickens against MD: The MD vaccine is actually a Turkey virus, which is a cosine of the MDV. This virus don't heart chickens but do activate an immune response in chicken which gives them a partially resistance against MDV. Its not uncommonly situation, in Humans the vaccine against the horrible small pox is made of a cows pox virus, which is a cosine of the Variola major virus which caouses small pox. Actually the word "vaccine" is derived from the Latin word VACCAS which is the Latin word for Cows.
This virus was the first time that humans used vaccination, it was an English Doctor called Edward Jenner which discovered this method in 1796. I recommend you to read mor about his interesting story!

 

[Akrnaf2]

Interesting article.  However it's unfortunate that the study is from 2006,  seems recent stuff is hard to come by.  I find there are too many variables.  And why are they injecting 1ml into each neck skin of chicks?  I thought it was 0.2 ml doses. 

It does seem the Fayoumi chickens have quite a bit of natural resistance.  Enough where they don't need vaccination.  I'd like to know why and what would happen if Fayoumi's were bred into flocks, or even what if flocks lived with Fayoumis, or what if hatched with a batch of chicks?  What if a broody hen was a Fayoumi?  I hope there are further articles about this.

I think that the Resistance of the Fayoumis is genetic and not something that can be transferred like the Turkey virus that give some immunity to chickens.

 

[seminolewind]

Quote:
What about breeding Fayoumis into flocks?

Was it Lalaland that was looking for creating resistance?

 

[Akrnaf2]

What about breeding Fayoumis into flocks? 

Was it Lalaland that was looking for creating resistance?

This is the idea! I think that breeding Fayoumis whit outer breed can raise the resistance against MD if the method of breeding and selection for resistance is implemented for several generations. But we should take in consideration the main characters of the Fayoumis : small eggs, good productivity, fast to mature,excellent foragers, Mediterranean type. I think that Leghorn Fayoumi or Minorca Fayoumi cross is a good beginning for egg production mix breed.

 

[Akrnaf2]

I have read somewhere, that scientists from the Iowa State University are conducting a research on the Fayoumi disease resistance, I am not from the USA, so I think that it will be easier for you to get information from them. (If you do get some information it will be nice if you could share it!)