Selling hatching eggs from a diseased flock?

[WiseOwl5]

When we decided to get chickens again this year from the hatchery we did not get the Marek's vaccine. We didn't know anything about the disease at the time and thought, "Why pay the extra money? We have never had problems with disease in the past." Biggest mistake ever. We had chickens dropping like flies so we sent 2 in to our local poultry lab. Results came back that it was Marek's. This was the very disease that we did not vaccinate for. I understand getting the vaccine wouldn't have prevented the disease, so there was nothing we could have done other than bio security. Unfortunately we did not take that seriously either and went to a sale which was probably where we got it.

Well, that was more of a rant than I wanted it to be. Anyway, the deaths have leveled off. The disease is not affected their laying, we have way to many eggs that we don't know what to do with, thankfully. I guess my question is can we sell hatching eggs in the spring?

I would never want to intentionally infect someone's flock, but I read that Marek's is not passed through the egg. With my logic though, I thought the disease could be on the surface of the shell, so I thought we could use Virkon S (I did some research) on the egg. I then did some research about how this effects hatching and according to this scientific study it does not significantly affect hatching or survival rates. Should we sell hatching eggs this way? Any thoughts?

Thanks for reading this large post.

 

[WiseOwl5]

Does anyone Abe any thoughts?

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Hello from Manitoba!

I'm so sorry to hear of your troubles with your flock. I believe you're correct about Mareks not passing through the egg...but as far as Virkoning eggs and such...I'm not really sure about it. I have never read about using Virkon this way or tried it, although I use Virkon myself.

I thought I'd at least say hi. I think you're the first Canadian that I've came across to have Mareks. Of course I may have missed people when I'm not on the site. I can only imagine how frustrated you are.

 

[WiseOwl5]

Hi, . Being infected with Marek's was frustrating, but it was probably inevitable. It's almost everywhere from what I've heard. I'm just glad we have nine hens left.

I think we will incubate a test batch of eggs ad see how the Virkon affects them. At the very least we will know for sure, there are so many mixed opinions on the Internet.

 

[Wickedchicken6]

Hi,

. Being infected with Marek's was frustrating, but it was probably inevitable. It's almost everywhere from what I've heard. I'm just glad we have nine hens left.

I think we will incubate a test batch of eggs ad see how the Virkon affects them. At the very least we will know for sure, there are so many mixed opinions on the Internet

I have never had much luck with any eggs I've cleaned. I've been thinking about your post today. So you will be trying the 1/200 solution of Virkon on the eggs? That's a very interesting article! The only other place I've seen someone taking steps to disinfect eggs was on an P Allen Smith video with Silver Laced Wyandottes.

 

[WiseOwl5]

Ya, I'll be using 1/200. It is a very interesting article. Mind you it was for E Coli, but still interesting to see steps and studies on mortality rates. Just what I needed.

I have never seen that video btw, I should watch it. Thanks for bringing it up.

 

[ironpotter]

Hello! I am curious how your experiments with hatching Virkon treated eggs went and if you ultimately decided to sell hatching eggs. I also have Marek’s in my flock and was contemplating the same thing.