To Vaccinate or not to vaccinate? That is the Question!

[Ghosty]

oh my...well i just started raising chickens in May of 2019 (and i do love them !!) and i've already gotten 5 birds off craigslist that carried the Marek's virus. ....they all died the same way, paralysis followed by a slow death and i had to euthanize most of them - 4 white silkie babies that were so cute and 1 Ayam cemani rooster that was amazing, handsome and proud. If you're gonna experiment with purchasing chickens from people off craigslist and local farmers you better vaccinate or you may bring in something into your flock you definitely do not want. !

Sorry to hear that!
Silkies are particularly susceptible to Marek's. You might consider getting them from a breeder or hatchery with a good track record that vaccinates before sending them to you.

 

[ErnieBerley]

Sorry to hear that!
Silkies are particularly susceptible to Marek's. You might consider getting them from a breeder or hatchery with a good track record that vaccinates before sending them to you.

yea i learned the hard way!! thanks

 

[Mtnboomer]

Mareks disease is highly contagious. We have been both lucky and unlucky in its appearance in our flock. We have unvaccinated chicks and adults that started and sustain our flock all from a single source. No previous cases and yet bam! We had 2 chicks die last spring from Mareks. Our source and my wife are vet pathologists and confirmed it. We keep between 20-35 birds at any given time of varying ages but so far have had only 5 deaths in 2 yrs and none of the birds butchered contained tumors.
So, where it came from who knows, but at least our losses have been minimal.

 

[Folly's place]

We've avoided it here, so far, and I hope it stays that way. It's about paranoid biosecurity, and luck. We have no near neighbors with chickens, which is wonderful, and we never bring in outside birds, except for vaccinated chicks from good hatcheries.
I also necropsy every bird who dies, unless it's obviously from something else (predation).
Mary

 

[gregstickels]

The Marek's disease vaccine does NOT cause the disease in chickens! If the flock is infected, the vaccinated birds are less likely to die of the tumors that infected birds develop. If there's no Marek's disease in the flock, adding vaccinated and UNEXPOSED birds won't bring the disease in.
Adding any outside birds, except safe new chicks, is a risk for this disease to appear. That's why it's important to practice good biosecurity and be lucky. If the disease appears, then other decisions have to be made.
Mary

Sorry that you misunderstood my post. I did not say that the vaccine caused the infection, I said that no symptoms would be detected in a bird that was infected, if it had been vaccinated. This vaccine does not prevent infection, only symptoms. However my last line regarding a vaccine strain was incorrect in this case.
If the bird had been exposed, they could be asymptomatic carriers.
This happens with people after getting the pertussis vaccine (whooping cough).
If grandma gets infected and has a cough she will not go visit the new baby. However if she gets the vaccine and later gets infected, there is no cough to give warning of the infection. Time to go kiss the baby.

 

[gregstickels]

The vaccine does not spread Marek's.

The most widely used Marek's vaccine is the herpesvirus of turkeys (HVT), which is non-pathogenic in chickens and therefore safe, but also closely enough related to the MD virus (serotype 3) to stimulate an immune response.

There is a lot of misinformation out there. Get yours from reputable sources. There are many university extension pdfs that are easily googled.
I will vaccinate whenever possible.

My post did not say that the vaccine caused infection, but the last line regarding a vaccine strain was incorrect in this case.
I meant to say that the vaccine prevents symptoms but does not prevent infection, so if the birds were to become infected, they could be asymptomatic carriers.
The pertussis (whooping cough) vaccine works the same way in that it prevents symptoms, but not infection.
If she has a cough, grandma won't go visit the new baby, but with the vaccine, there won't be that pesky cough to warn of infection.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

There's a whole huge thread on it going on here with a lot of opinions;
https://www.backyardchickens.com/posts/22124541/I don't vaccinate because I want the knowledge of Mareks in my flock and healthy genetics. But if I was keeping my birds as pets I would probably consider it.

 

[ChocolateMouse]

Wait, wait. This is hard to notice because of the new layout update. But this thread is from September 2015???

Why did someone post in/necro a thread from 4 years ago?
@gregstickels?

 

[ErnieBerley]

Wait, wait. This is hard to notice because of the new layout update. But this thread is from September 2015???

Why did someone post in/necro a thread from 4 years ago?
@gregstickels?

oh no i may have goofed up...oh well got people talking !!

 

[ChocolateMouse]

oh no i may have goofed up...oh well got people talking !!

It doesn't look like you were the first post this year, so it's understandable you'd post in what looked like a new topic.

OP hasn't been here in 3 years tho.