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You seem to have been doing a lot of investigating! It's always good when someone joins the group of us that want to stay up to date on Marek's and gets some good info. You would think Marek's is a worthy research due to it's about a vaccine that prevents cancerous tumors-something humans can benefit from. Did I hear correctly that Marek's research led to developing a vaccine that young girls get to prevent a uterine cancer? Sorry , that turned out to be Marek's vaccine being the first vaccine developed and used in preventing a cancer.
I hear ya when you talk about accuracy. Most vets are not up to date on Marek's. It's a shame that a group of us here on BYC actually know more than the average vet about Marek's. But it's not their speciality. I think the best bet is an animal disease laboratory for a necropsy.
I have learned that if there are no tumors found, labs usually don't send tissue or blood out for dna testing. And things do get confusing when a bird might be exposed or given the vaccine. I think there is a bunch of variables that have to be considered to get an accurate diagnosis. I don't think it's easy. When I sent my chickens for a necropsy, I did write that my flock has Marek's, and this chicken has been exposed.
I'm sure there is some inaccuracy when tumors are not present or not seen.
My first necropsy 6 years ago was a vet that euthanized my silkie roo for me and I gave him permission to open him up. He called me later to say that he thinks the roo died of EEE (equine encephalitis) because he didn't see any tumors.
I don't know why there were no tumors visible. But I am 100% sure that my roo had Marek's. He developed leg paralysis. He developed lack of depth perception (not making contact with the food). He had one eye turn gray. The paralysis crept up his body to the point that he had no control of his head neck and wings, so if you set him down, he would tip forward on to his face and couldn't get up. I sure loved the little bugger.
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