Thank you for the pictures. It really helps us amateurs to learn from your experience. Will be looking for the results later.
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Did she expose his sciatic (femoral) nerves, and take samples there?
Mary
That is a nice memorial for Phil. If Phil did have Mareks, any new flock members will be exposed to the disease from dust and dander in the environment. Wonder if she could get them vaccinated for Mareks? It takes 2 weeks for them to develop immunity from the vaccine, so if she could do that and wait the 2 weeks before delivering them to you, they might have a good chance to not get the disease symptoms.
I am not an expert on Mareks, but if the chickens have not been exposed in their previous environment, I understand that they could still develop immunity to the disease if they are vaccinated. It is true that vaccinating is best as day old chicks, but I would still vaccinate them before they come to you. Vaccinating is a controversial topic for all chicken owners. I get it done when ordering new chicks. I do not know how easy it is to obtain the Mareks vaccine in Belgium. In the US we can order it online.
Older birds are a bit less likely to develop symptoms, but as I understand it, any chicken any age can still get Mareks symptom 3 or more weeks after being exposed. I am sure some will disagree with vaccinating the newcomers, but that is my opinion.