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

[ochochicas]

This is the response from the vet when I asked if I should vaccinate chicks hatched by a broody.
If the chicks are raised by a broody hen, then the risk of Mareks can be higher even after vaccination. If the chicks become infected with the virus before the vaccine takes effect, they will develop the disease. To find out whether your hen carries the virus is expensive (It is a PCR blood test - about $100 plus shipping).

I already know that my coop and brooder have Marek's in them, so there is no point having my hens tested. The chicks are all going to inhale Marek's at some point, it is just a matter of when and how much. I'd love to be able to hatch with a broody again. I just want to know if there is any point vaccinating the chicks when they hatch.

I lost two pullets already that were hatched here last year. One was hatched by a broody from eggs I purchased. She became sick at a very young age but lingered for a long time before succumbing to the disease. The second was a very young pullet that hatched in the house from eggs that came from my flock. The chicks were raised in the house, were not vaccinated, and didn't have exposure to the other birds until they were 6 weeks old. Unfortunately I gave away half of the chicks before I realized they were exposed to Marek's. Out of 16 babies, only the one pullet has shown any signs of illness (thank goodness). I do think the broody raised chicks were sicklier than the ones hatched in the incubator. However, the broody hatched eggs were not from my flock, so there would be no "natural resistance" compared to if they had been my own eggs.

Hopefully this all makes some sense. I think I will let my broody raise chicks. It will be extremely sad if they get Marek's and have to be put down, but if I think of it as "helping science" it won't all be pointless.

 

[Nambroth]

This is the response from the vet when I asked if I should vaccinate chicks hatched by a broody.
If the chicks are raised by a broody hen, then the risk of Mareks can be higher even after vaccination. If the chicks become infected with the virus before the vaccine takes effect, they will develop the disease. To find out whether your hen carries the virus is expensive (It is a PCR blood test - about $100 plus shipping).

I already know that my coop and brooder have Marek's in them, so there is no point having my hens tested. The chicks are all going to inhale Marek's at some point, it is just a matter of when and how much. I'd love to be able to hatch with a broody again. I just want to know if there is any point vaccinating the chicks when they hatch.

If you know your flock has Marek's, to the best of my understanding, it would be pointless to vaccinate chicks raised under a broody. If research comes out later that suggests that vaccinating an already-exposed chick would help, I hope we will hear about it, but until then it would probably be wasted effort and money.

As a personal suggestion, and you are of course free to discard it, but if you have some records on your hens and you know that a given bird has come from generations of healthy birds, she might be the best candidate to pass on whatever good genetics she has to your future chicks.

 

[ochochicas]

As a personal suggestion, and you are of course free to discard it, but if you have some records on your hens and you know that a given bird has come from generations of healthy birds, she might be the best candidate to pass on whatever good genetics she has to your future chicks.

I do have detailed records on all my birds. The hen that is broody all the time came to me with a group of hens that were all 1+ years old when I got them. They are all nicely bred birds, but I don't know their origin or bloodlines. None of those hens have ever been sick, so I think they were Marek's free when I got them and were probably old enough to not have developed it when it arrived on my farm. I am keeping records on all the chicks and will post any significant findings when I discover them. Her last batch of chicks is 3 months old now and still look good. Finger crossed!

 

[seminolewind]

hi Nambroth, she had multiple tumors and the question was whether it was LL or marek's. I don't know why she got it but all precautions were taken. I can only think her immune system was really poor or the needle missed the egg. They were all stressed with shipping. MMcM crammed them all in a little box and one was crushed, one was teetering and I managed to feed her constantly. 3 weeks later one got wry neck.

Now the Marek's Lesson (LOLOLOL)

The name of the game is to build the antibodies before the real disease comes along. Antibodies are in the blood and the body forms them when it's exposed to a threat in hopes that the blood can fight it off. They are custom made to fight any bacteria or virus

A chicken builds the Very Same antibodies when the body is exposed to the vaccine or virus. The goal is to get the antibodies building with a "fake" exposure (vaccine) and let the antibodies multiply before the real virus comes along. We want a really big "Army" before the real virus comes.

If the chick has an exposure to the real virus before the vaccine, the puny amount of antibodies never has time to multiply enough to fight the virus. A vaccine after an exposure will do nothing at all. The vaccine or the virus build the exact same antibodies. We just wish we have lots of antibodies before the real virus shows up.

They say that a chick can have resistance for 2 weeks if hatched by a broody. It does them no good, after 2 weeks, they still have the exposure . And the vaccine does not work very well if the chick is hatched by a Marek's exposed broody.

A vaccine is a safe exposure. There is no medicine in it, or anything that attacks the virus. It just helps the body build protection before the real virus comes along.

 

[seminolewind]

Ocho, I have had good results with a hatch that was not vaccinated, kept away from the rest for 4 weeks, lived with them for 8 weeks, then went to a stable. I got a roo back a few months later and he's good. I do think a lot has to do with the concentration of virus. Or with breaks away from the virus, it may give them a chance to build enough antibodies to protect themselves.

 

[ochochicas]

Opinions on my pullet's eyes? She's 18 weeks. Sister died from Marek's.

Right side


Left side

 

[seminolewind]

Have they progressed to that? It's hard to say what's from Marek's but it this is happening now, and her sister died, and she's wasting (?) I would say so.

 

[ochochicas]

No the pullet is not sick. She is as healthy as can be other than the eye changes. It started in one eye and is now in both eyes. I thought Ocular Mareks was more in the form of cloudiness and the pupils are not responsive to light. Her eyes work fine other than the weird coloration. She is the only one out of 10 chicks that has eyes like this. Maybe I'm paranoid, but I hate losing my chicks!.

 

[seminolewind]

I know what you mean about losing chicks. I had one with a grey eye. Then I had a roo that was about 2 years old and I just noticed one day that one of his pupils was oval, not round. He wasted away and died.

So I wonder if it can be different types of things.

 

[mightymax]

I've had two now, one hen and one roo, that I believe to have had the ocular form of Marek's. On both of them their pupils weren't so much irregularly shaped as they were grayish
in color, almost like you would expect one's pupil to be if it were covered in a semi opaque kind of slime or film, for instance. And it covered the entire eye, the iris and the pupil. That's not to say that (Ochochicas) your bird doesn't have it or isn't suffering from it, it's just not been my experience, that's all.

I'll see if I can find the pictures I took of their eyes right before I sent them off to be examined and if I can, I'll post them for comparison's sake. An interesting side note...I have read two different accounts of how the ocular form manifests itself.
Not entirely opposing views, but containing varying degrees of difference, from two reportedly reputable resources...the poultry industry's website and the U of New Hampshire extension website. That just goes to show that even the people who are supposedly 'in the know', don't always 'know' (or agree...lol !!!).

-kim-