Sudden deaths in my flock need help

[Moges amha]

So sorry to read about Mareks in your flock. I have it in my flock too and it is really frustrating and sad to watch chickens die from it.

I think it would be really, really helpful for you to read through this entire article so you can best know how to care for your flock now that you know you have Mareks:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/articles/the-great-big-giant-mareks-disease-faq.66077/

Most likely more of your birds will die. I've had a young, healthy chicken die from Mareks over a year after they were exposed. The chickens that survive into old age will be resistant, but they will all carry the disease for life and very easily spread it to others. Mareks spreads on wild animals that visit your property, stray chicken feathers, and even on the wind. It is highly contagious.

Since you take your eggs to market, I would suggest making sure you change clothes before going so that you don't bring Mareks with you on your shoes and clothes to infect other people's flocks. Also disinfect your egg trays every time they get used. This hardest part of this will probably be getting a good biosecurity routine in place for your business. The article has great tips on biosecurity.

You should also advise people to wash their hands after handling the eggs to prevent spread since the eggs will have Mareks on them from being laid in the nesting material.

Well even tho its a sad thing am gald i met some one thats goin through the same thing am going through . It has made my first time raising chickens quite hard. On the bright side it has taught me the whole poultry thing more cause am sure if i didnt experience this hardship i wouldnt have be this educated on alot of thing about chicken. Out of 650 chickens 143 died till today and only 200 chickens are laying and the rest 307 chickens are just not doin anything except eatting which really suck tbh. its very frustrating am sure u understand. Am not even sure the 300 myt ecer lay .

I tead more that half of it and it has every thing you would need to understand MD i love it thanks . But one thing that confused me is till today i tot MD passed from mother to th child(chicks) but on the article it says it is not transmited through birth whas your tot on that ?? And how many chickens did u lose to MD ?? And did it by any chance delay their laying period or made them stop laying or affected their daily egg production

 

[KaseySnow]

Well even tho its a sad thing am gald i met some one thats goin through the same thing am going through . It has made my first time raising chickens quite hard. On the bright side it has taught me the whole poultry thing more cause am sure if i didnt experience this hardship i wouldnt have be this educated on alot of thing about chicken. Out of 650 chickens 143 died till today and only 200 chickens are laying and the rest 307 chickens are just not doin anything except eatting which really suck tbh. its very frustrating am sure u understand. Am not even sure the 300 myt ecer lay .

I tead more that half of it and it has every thing you would need to understand MD i love it thanks . But one thing that confused me is till today i tot MD passed from mother to th child(chicks) but on the article it says it is not transmited through birth whas your tot on that ?? And how many chickens did u lose to MD ?? And did it by any chance delay their laying period or made them stop laying or affected their daily egg production

No, the article is correct. MD is a virus that is transmitted much like a cold or a flu (or covid). It cannot be inherited by a chick from the mom.

However, unless you hatch the eggs away from the moms in a super sterile environment, there is very little way to prevent the chick from getting MD after hatching. The article talks about this as well.

The chickens that do survive Mareks disease should continue to lay normally as far as I am aware. MD does not attack a hen's reproductive system, so there should be no damage done that way. Chickens don't always lay daily, though some breeds can sometimes have weeks where they do lay daily. A high production breed will lay 300+ eggs a year for the first year or two, but that still leave a number of days with no eggs. I don't know of any breed that lays 365 eggs per year.

They could also be slower at laying because their bodies are fighting off Mareks disease, or maybe even something else. If their bodies are using resources to fight sickness, they will have fewer resources to lay eggs.

As for how many chickens I've lost, it's hard to say. We were not aware until recently that we had Mareks in the flock and we did not test the bodies of the hens who died prior to our discovery. I can confirm that we introduced 15 new birds to our flock and of those 15, 11 died. 5 of the deaths we confirmed were Mareks with a necropsy exam by a vet, 2 died of a heart condition, 1 other died of unknown causes, and the rest we did not test to confirm, though most of them showed symptoms of Mareks before death.

So basically half of the birds we introduced succumbed to MD. Keep in mind though, most of the birds that died were young pullets. Young birds are more susceptible to Mareks, in part because their immune systems are not fully developed. Had we waited until they were older to introduce, more of them may have survived.

We have a very small flock compared to yours though, so it is easier to test more of the hens. If the hens who are dying are dying with Mareks symptoms that you recognize now that you have seen Mareks, no need to test. But it's also possible that some chickens are dying from something else.

To be honest, now that you have Mareks in your coop it will be pretty tough to ever get rid of it even if you cull all of your birds and start fresh. Like the article explains, Mareks can live in the ground and walls of a coop for many months or even years. So any new birds you put in that space will likely contract Mareks as well.

If you plan on continuing to keep chickens, it might be a wise idea to get a few roosters and breed the hens who survive MD. Any survivors may be naturally more resistant to MD. That's what the hens in our flock are and is why they have lived through it for so long. Maybe keep back 20-30 of the healthiest hens at the end of the year and breed those and raise the chicks to be the next generation of layers. Try to vaccinate the chicks if you can, it must be done within hours of hatching to be effective. Eventually you will have a Mareks resistant flock this way and you won't have to fight the disease as much down the road.

 

[Moges amha]

Its amazing how the doctors in my country that work in the urban agriculture office are still fixed on the fact that mareks is transmitted by birth even after i gave them the article you sent me its very annoying and confusing.

Yeah your right , if u introduced them after they wer a bit older thing would have been different i have seen it in my chickens how strong they are noe than when they got here.. i will attach a chart on their mortality and u will see the difference.

And about the hatching my own chickens i dont think it a feasible idea seeing it from a bussiness side . It wont b effective compared to getting the amount i want from the hatchery in one day plus i think i have to take one month break to disinfect the whole coop after i close this batch .Am sure thats the only way i could have a chance of eradictting the virus for good.

Check out the chart and let me know what u think its an accurate documentation of the death i had in my flock

 

[KaseySnow]

What are you planning on doing to disinfect? Mareks is pretty hard to get rid of and you must practice extreme biosecurity to keep it out. It's probably on your clothes at your home, in your vehicle, outside of the coop, etc. You'll have to clean every nook and cranny of literally everything you own with something that kills viruses in order to prevent bringing it back into the coop on your shoes or clothes.

The article has scientific studies cited at the bottom of the sections. You should tell the people at the ag office to look into them. Honestly though, even a google search will tell you that Mareks is not transferred genetically. It is not something the chicks inherit, it exists only outside of the egg.