Vaccinate or Not

Do you vaccinate your chicks?

  • Yes

    Votes: 64 27.0%
  • No

    Votes: 146 61.6%
  • Sometimes

    Votes: 27 11.4%

  • Total voters
    237
Pics
I’m going to try and call Into the owner. I’ve had several great convos about the exact source of their birds and meat birds I’m sure he will add confusing information to our discussion. :oops:

Sounds like an excellent idea!! I didn’t realize you could talk directly to the owner!? That’s awesome for such a big hatchery. I will be interested to hear what he has to say. :pop
 
This is in reference to:




The original article did show what you are saying. It was such a groundbreaking article because it provided proof for a hypothesis that had been theorized for a long time but not really backed up with much scientific evidence. So, yes, I agree with your statements. Those hotter strains do now exist and are in circulation. Trying to go back to less virulent MDV would now be difficult though: it’s kind of like Pandora’s box has already been opened...

Thanks!! This makes a lot of sense. This whole thing is very interesting. So it seems they never should have vaccinated to begin with? BunI guess they didn’t want to lose birds and money?
 
This makes more sense. Thanks

So I have some chicks that I hatched from eggs I got from a hatchery and they’re 6 weeks old now and moving outside soon next to my current flock but not together. Anyway, they need to be moved outside because they’re starting to smell and just are way too big (though their area is large and they’re not cramped) but they’re not vaccinated because they were hatched from eggs but my current flock is all vaccinated cause they’re from a hatchery. I’m concerned about putting the unvaccinated ones near the vaccinated ones... will they be okay out there?
MDV is super easy to transfer from one flock to another, so if both sets of birds are on the same premises, then you’ve probably already inoculated the chicks if you do have MDV in your older birds. That’s why vaccination is supposed to happen in the egg or at 1 day old, because the virus is considered to be ubiquitous in poultry keeping environments, and the vaccine only works if it happens before natural infection. If your older, vaccinated birds don’t have wild MDV, then they won’t infect your naive chicks with disease-causing MDV anyway, regardless of where they are housed.
 
MDV is super easy to transfer from one flock to another, so if both sets of birds are on the same premises, then you’ve probably already inoculated the chicks if you do have MDV in your older birds. That’s why vaccination is supposed to happen in the egg or at 1 day old, because the virus is considered to be ubiquitous in poultry keeping environments, and the vaccine only works if it happens before natural infection. If your older, vaccinated birds don’t have wild MDV, then they won’t infect your naive chicks with disease-causing MDV anyway, regardless of where they are housed.

Thanks, that makes sense. I’ve tried to be careful and not wear the same shoes and stuff near the little ones but if it travels on clothes or skin I probably have.. but I try to tend to the babies first so I don’t bring anything to them. They’ve never been outside. In the laundry room currently. :lau

I considered buying the vaccine but it’s only sold in 1000 dose vials and I only have 9 chicks.

I’m not sure if they have the wild version or not. But we do have tons of wild birds around being set back in the woods. All kinds of song birds as well as robins, woodpeckers, hawks, owls, turkeys. The turkeys especially love hanging in the back near the chickens. Never had a sick bird or seen a sick wild bird but I’m sure it’s highly probable we have the disease but :confused:
 
@Mixed flock enthusiast would you know if you've got a problem if all of your (bought) chicks had been vaccinated, but your broody raised ones had not? Would the latter absolutely get sick and die if you had MDV in your flock?

That’s what I’m wondering too. Mine aren’t broody raised but I did hatch them and they haven’t been vaccinated. Was worried they’d automatically get sick or something.
 

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