Peeps in Europe!

[Maiahr]

Well, my attempt to combine business with hobby was successful. I just finished my business trip to the Netherlands. While in the NL I bought hatching eggs from Brabanter breed. @BDutch THANK YOU for connecting me with the seller!! I will definitely recommend him! I put all the eggs, each wrapped individually, in my hand luggage. I just passed through the airport security and there were no problems. The eggs are now on the plane to Bulgaria and these will be the first Brabanter chicks in the country.

 

[Papaye]

Hi.

It just occurred to me that if any of these eggs do actually hatch, they'll need to be vaccinated, at least for Mareks at 1 day old. All the recommendations I'm seeing is for the US. What is recommended for here? I don't even know if the older chickens I have, have been vaxed, tbh. The breeders never mentioned it, and I didn't think to ask. And how do you handle vaccinations, if you do them?

...After making some research in the past, I ended up learning that Marek vaccine has a pretty bad reputation : not only is it aknowledged to not even prevent your chickens from getting Marek... BUT it is also renowed to make the virus much more dangerous ("X 1000") for unvaccinated chickens that are contaminated by vaccinated chickens that are infected with Marek...!

My honest understanding is that Marek would not even be (such) an issue anymore if people stopped vaccinating their birds...

You do what you want, of course... I am not even telling you I am right!
Nor am I trying to start a debate here...

In Germany it is mandatory to vaccinate for Newcastle. I don't know if France has mandatory vaccinations.

In France, chickens or ducks are NOT required by law to be vaccinated...

...apart, now, for Avian Influenza (ducks) : indeed, since October 2023, farms of 250 ducks or more have to vaccinate their ducks against Avian Influenza virus - though there is an exception for breeding duck farms whose production is destined for export, because it is apparently illegal to export birds vaccinated against Avian Influenza (reason apparently being : the Avian Influenza vaccine is said to be known to propagate Avian Influenza virus).

Our Avian Influenza "vaccine" being a self-amplifying messenger RNA "vaccine", it is now necessary to be extremely careful to NOT buy ducks OR fertilized eggs from farms that vaccinate their birds with it if we want to be certain to NOT contaminate our flock with RNA...

(I will let you make your own research to see if this vaccine even works or not... huh...)

 

[BDutch]

The eggs are now on the plane to Bulgaria and these will be the first Brabanter chicks in the country.

How many eggs did you buy Maiahr?
All set?

Let us know how it goes on from here.

 

[MaryJanet]

Just chipping in from Australia to share my recent Marek's experience and the information that government policy on Newcastle disease is that flocks with more than 1000 chickens must be vaccinated. There are more precise ND vaccination details in this national policy document.

About Marek's, I recently brought 3 pullets home and placed them into quarantine as a group of 3. They came from a prize-winning breeder whose pens were very poopy, and they were extremely hungry and thirsty. All three threw themselves at the feed and would fight over the water, so I had to put an extra waterer in their coop. Lesson learned: prize-winning breeders do not always maintain good chicken husbandry.

Anyway, a couple of days into quarantine, I noticed the Marans had a strange pupil and a strange gait. I took all three to an experienced chicken vet who took one look and said, "Yes, that's Marek's". The Australorp and Brahma did not have any symptoms at this stage.

The Marans worsened and was euthanised. The Australorp began to show symptoms, worsened and was euthanised.

At the same time, in my established flock, there was a young hen who only recently started laying. I took her for a Marek's test because if my existing flock had it before the infected pullets arrived, they would have passed it to her because she'd been living with them for months. Her test was negative, so I assumed the entire existing flock was not infected with Marek's.

Great! This suggested my quarantine procedures were effective and I began to suspect the Marans and Australorp may have had one of the less virulent Marek's pathotypes.

I then took the Brahma pullet for a Marek's test and she was negative! Not infected in spite of living in the same quarantine coop as the Marans and Australorp. To my mind, this confirmed they had one of the less virulent pathotypes and hinted that the Brahma was genetically resistant.

So, I broke quarantine last night.

I plan to bring in only vaccinated chicks in future (next flock expansion will be 4 chicks in Nov 2026-Jan 2027). I know they have to remain isolated for a few weeks, that would happen anyway because they'd be in a brooder inside. The vaccine used in Australia does not cause shedding in birds that aren't exposed to the virus, but I need to confirm this vaccine is the one used by the breeder, whoever that turns out to be.