Vaccinated Chickens Transmit Marek's Virus and Can Kill Your Unvaccinated Chickens.

[HappyHippyChick]

What has happened and what I am now doing. When I first got bantam chickens over a decade ago. I suspect it was about 2005 ish when I got chickens. I bought some bantams from a guy. These chickens were show quality and they were shown. So, at some point, there were some other people selling and showing chickens to my 'seller'.

It became very clear that several farms became down with Mareks. It was absolutely horrible when many of my chickens suffered and died.

After more than ten years I have had absolutely no chickens. And also, the ground and my place is 'virgin'. No Mareks what so ever. So within 13 years have passed, I am getting a few chickens. I am not buying from any hatcheries nor people that are passing around several birds.

I bought a small amount of chickens at day one from a backyard breeder. No vaccinations for the chicks and 'virgin' ground and now 6 months later they are very healthy.

So far, everyone is very healthy.

 

[HappyHippyChick]

Some of these articles in this thread may or may not be entirely accurate. I am not sure what information would be accurate. People should just get the best info they can and then make a decision. It is also very possible that chickens may be healthy with good food, water and good pasture and environment to be able to ward off certain diseases. Actually, I think the time frame was around 20 years before I got any more chickens.

 

[Tahai]

I chose to have my chicks vaccinated at the hatchery to keep them safe. I will choose to have all future chicks vaccinated.

I don't feel guilty about that. I'm not selling or trading my chickens, and I'm not free-ranging them or taking them off my property, so I really don't care about hypothetical super bugs being passed on to any other flocks.

 

[LisaMP]

The birds I believe to be my ground zero birds came from out of State. In all of my pondering it has occurred to me that perhaps my flock was hit SO terribly hard because the new birds introduced a variant that my resident birds had absolutely no immunity to. Lots to think about.

 

[adladladl]

Never, ever mix vaccinated and unvaccinated chickens. Marek's vaccination is what they call a "leaky" vaccination in that it prevents death of the host but does not prevent infection or transmission, and it allows the virus to become increasingly "hot" or more deadly. Vaccinated chickens who become infected (asymptomatically or not) transmit 10,000 times more of the deadly virus than an unvaccinated bird. Because of the way a leaky vaccine causes the virus to evolve, the virus is now so strong now that it has the capability of killing 100% of unvaccinated chickens the vaccinated chicken comes into contact with. Always ask whether the chickens have been vaccinated before adding them to your flock. Chicks bought from Tractor Supply stores are not vaccinated. Chicks bought from Ace Hardware are.

Research Marek's Vaccine. This is a known fact (and snowballing problem) in the commercial poultry world, threatening the very existence of chickens in the future. The first vaccine of 1970 eventually stopped working, so a second was developed in 1983, and when that began to fail, a third, which is what we are on now. The virus keeps evolving hotter strains (killing far more unvaccinated chickens than it did before the vaccine was developed). These variants are increasingly resistant to vaccination (killing more and more vaccinated chickens). Here's just one part of one article about a disease ecologist's experiment and findings:

"Read’s group started their investigation by exposing vaccinated and unvaccinated Rhode Island Red chickens to one of five Marek’s disease strains that ranged from hot to cold. The hottest strains killed every unvaccinated bird within 10 days, and the team noticed that barely any virus was shed from the feathers of the chickens during that time. (The virus spreads via contaminated dust in chicken coops). In contrast, vaccination extended the lifespan of birds exposed to the hottest strains, with 80 percent living longer than two months. But the vaccinated chickens were transmitting the virus, shedding 10,000 times more virus than an unvaccinated bird.....“One way to look at that experiment is that shows vaccinating birds kills unvaccinated birds. The vaccination of one group of birds leads to the transmission of a virus so hot that it kills the other birds, said Read said. “If you vaccinate the mothers, the same thing happens. The offspring are protected by the maternal antibodies of the mother and that allows the virus in the chicks to transmit before they kill the host. So they transmit and kill the other individuals.”

https://www.pbs.org/newshour/science/tthis-chicken-vaccine-makes-virus-dangerous
https://www.healthline.com/health-n...n-produce-stronger-versions-of-viruses-072715
https://www.quantamagazine.org/how-vaccines-can-drive-pathogens-to-evolve-20180510/

This is so sad...you are sharing lies. The vaccine leakage does not spread this. Please don't share this misinformation with others.