prevalence of Marek's disease in adult chickens?

noisegeyser

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Not an emergency so I didn't want to pollute the emergencies section with this thread, I just have a question. Has anyone here ever had an adult chicken get Marek's? Specifically through indirect means (taking dander home with you on your clothes). I help a friend with their animals often and they have a young chicken that definitely has Marek's disease. Since his leg is paralyzed it gets very dirty, so I'm compelled to clean it since I feel bad. But that means holding him close to me as I do it. I wash my clothes as soon as I get home, but this is always in the back of my mind.

They also have plenty of adult chickens who live in the immediate vicinity of the sick young one, and they're all fine. So I guess that's worth noting.
 
Has this been an actual diagnosis, by lab testing? Or is it a guess?
Any time you are visiting another flock, you need to change from shoes on up when getting home. And wear your barn shoes and boots only at home, nowhere else. Trying to protect your birds, and other flocks, means being very good about biosecurity, always.
Mary
 
How long has the bird been like this? Are you sure his leg isn’t just sprained or broken or something? Any other symptoms? Mareks typically affects both legs AFIK and/or the wings and also progresses pretty fast so I would think he would be showing other symptoms or be pretty bad health wise by now. If it’s just his leg and he’s fine otherwise it’s probably not Mareks unless he just recently got sick ?
 
My chickens have had marek's for 2 years now and I have had 3 chickens who were over a year old die from it. And then pretty much every non vaccinated chick I have hatched or bought has died from it. I have 2 roosters that I hatched and raised who are both 2 now and were not vaccinated. The majority of my adult birds are not vaccinated. Adults can get it and carry it for their whole lifetime and never show symptoms or go years before showing symptoms and dying.
 
How long has the bird been like this? Are you sure his leg isn’t just sprained or broken or something? Any other symptoms? Mareks typically affects both legs AFIK and/or the wings and also progresses pretty fast so I would think he would be showing other symptoms or be pretty bad health wise by now. If it’s just his leg and he’s fine otherwise it’s probably not Mareks unless he just recently got sick ?

I'm not over there every day so I haven't seen exactly how he has progressed day to day, but over the course of a couple months he went from walking with a limp to his bad leg being completely inert. Whenever I'm over there now I can move that leg freely with no resistance on his part, and when I let go it flops completely lifeless. I haven't been able to take him to a vet and his owner hasn't either, but it seems to be that his leg is paralyzed. He still has control of his wings and uses them to try to balance himself.

I don't wear my work boots anywhere around my chickens, and I change my clothes, take a shower and put my dirty clothes in the washer before I see them after I come home each day.
 
I have 2 roosters that I hatched and raised who are both 2 now and were not vaccinated.

Are they sick and showing symptoms of Marek's, or do you think they're just carrying it while appearing healthy themselves? A couple years ago my friend actually took care of my chickens for me and they were living with his general chicken population, where Marek's had a presence and does every year when he raises new chickens. And they returned to me healthy.
 
I'm not over there every day so I haven't seen exactly how he has progressed day to day, but over the course of a couple months he went from walking with a limp to his bad leg being completely inert. Whenever I'm over there now I can move that leg freely with no resistance on his part, and when I let go it flops completely lifeless. I haven't been able to take him to a vet and his owner hasn't either, but it seems to be that his leg is paralyzed. He still has control of his wings and uses them to try to balance himself.

I don't wear my work boots anywhere around my chickens, and I change my clothes, take a shower and put my dirty clothes in the washer before I see them after I come home each day.
This really does not sound like Marek’s to me. Not to sound cold but with Marek’s they’re usually dead or completely immobilized within a couple weeks (if not sooner) not a couple months. They also show signs of being sick and weak, etc. not just unable to use a leg. When I had birds get it they lost weight, stopped eating, couldn’t stand up at all, etc. and were just generally unwell and miserable and I had to put them down. This really sounds far more like an injury or something to me with the slow progression and the fact no other birds have gotten it.
 
This really does not sound like Marek’s to me. Not to sound cold but with Marek’s they’re usually dead or completely immobilized within a couple weeks (if not sooner) not a couple months. They also show signs of being sick and weak, etc. not just unable to use a leg. When I had birds get it they lost weight, stopped eating, couldn’t stand up at all, etc. and were just generally unwell and miserable and I had to put them down. This really sounds far more like an injury or something to me with the slow progression and the fact no other birds have gotten it.

Thank you for your input. That is strange, I wonder what could really be going on. Next time I'm there I'll get some pictures and video of him trying to move. He's not very thin, either. And eats and drinks as much as he should. There is one other young bird around his age that recently started acting similarly, but hasn't progressed that far (only just started walking with a noticeable limp), so he had assumed it was Marek's disease but can't know for sure unless he pays to have them tested.

If it's not Marek's disease, maybe it's lameness due to some genetic issue. Different line of chickens than before, but he's had bad experiences in the past with breeders here. This would be the second time he's bought young roosters that slowly became unable to walk.
 
But since the adult chickens who live in the immediate vicinity of them are healthy, my chickens are likely safe? I will keep taking the precautions I have been, of course. Now that the possibility is opened up that this isn't Marek's at all, I'm not sure what to think.
 

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