Question about Mareks and egg quality

[Weeg]

Hey guys, I had a quick question about how Mareks can affect egg quality in chickens, or wether it has any affect at all.
I recently bought a dozen eggs from a BYC member. They weren't shipped from far, only about 4 hours from were I live. None of the eggs hatched, and over half quit before day 14. I had one egg make it to day 17 but it was weak, and I found it had quit the day of lockdown.
I questioned my abilities, and even the egg quality then selves. Finally blaming shipping.
Though today, I read a thread were this member was asking about Mareks disease in his flock. I learned that his flock has Ocular Mareks, and later in a the thread after a Necropsy, he learned his hen died from Visceral marek's. I couldn't find any information on Google, but what do you think about this situation? The hen's he was talking about weren't the same breed that I got eggs from, but I assume they all live near each other and the bantam hens I ordered eggs from have Mareks to.
I really dont know much about the disease, but my questions are-

• Is it likely that the bantam hens have the Marek's as well? I'm assuming so.
• Does the Mareks disease affect egg hatch rates/quality, and could it be passed to the offspring?
• Is this something he should have informed me of?

Thanks in advance everyone! I'm very interested in seeing the answers to the questions.

 

[RoostersAreAwesome]

Marek’s cannot be passed vertically, meaning it does not go straight into the chicks in the infected parents’ eggs. However, it spreads extremely easily, since it spreads through infected feather follicles/chicken dander. This means that infected dander could be on the eggs themselves, which wouldn’t infect the chicks inside, but could infect any other chicken or the chicks once they hatch. So, yes, he should’ve informed you that his flock has Marek’s. Even if he didn’t know at the time, he should’ve informed you once he found out.

 

[Weeg]

Marek’s cannot be passed vertically, meaning it does not go straight into the chicks in the infected parents’ eggs. However, it spreads extremely easily, since it spreads through infected feather follicles/chicken dander. This means that infected dander could be on the eggs themselves, which wouldn’t infect the chicks inside, but could infect any other chicken or the chicks once they hatch. So, yes, he should’ve informed you that his flock has Marek’s.

Thank you, ARGH! This is really frustrating! I'm going to contact him about this new info. Thank you for your quick response.