Vaccinating for Mariks at home

[lisa69]

I have a problem with Mariks disease after I purchased 12 week old deathlayer pullets. Almost a year later I am still loosing some unvaccinated birds and I lost one vaccinated bird. So I vaccinated my whole flock at home. I boosterd already vaccinated birds, Unvaccinated birds that have been exposed to my flock, chicks and grow outs from my clean rooms. even the turkeys. I also vaccinated one slightly symptomatic, hen( standing on one leg, stopped laying, isolating herslf from the flock.) It's been 4 days and no side effects. The real suprise is the symptomatic hen is dramatically better. Has anyone ever vaccinated adult , exposed or symtomatic birds with positive results?

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I haven't...but I do know that the vaccine doesn't prevent Marek's, it only reduces the tumor growth, and that according to the literature, vaccinating later in life is useless as the tumors are already present.

So in my knowledge and experience, it was coincidence that your adult bird got better after the vaccine.

LofMc

 

[Kiki]

When you give the Marek's vaccine to chicks You must keep them away from the disease so the vaccine can have time to work.

Keep them away for a couple of weeks.
It would be best if you purchased vaccinated chicks but didn't bring them onto your property until they were a couple of weeks old.

 

[Kiki]

The answer to your question is it is probably just a coincidence.

 

[lisa69]

When you give the Marek's vaccine to chicks You must keep them away from the disease so the vaccine can have time to work.

Keep them away for a couple of weeks.
It would be best if you purchased vaccinated chicks but didn't bring them onto your property until they were a couple of weeks old.

I understand that the ideal situation is to vaccinate chicks while still in the egg. But these studies are done in big chicken houses, with the assumption that ALL comercial hatcheries are Mariks positive. I can't do that , so I'm more interested in what I can do. I keep chicks that I hatch plus grow outs in an indoor clean room, exercising strict bio-security. I vaccinated them at home, as it is practical but generally not day old chicks. No birds leave my farm over a week old without being vaccinated, but people get thier nickers in a twist about vaccines, I give them a window to come get thier chicks before I vaccinate them. Since I have extra vaccine I boostered my flock. Its been a week out and there are no side effects to any chicken, any age, that I vaccinated, or the turkeys that live with them. To my surprise the Frisian gull that I was going to cull for symptoms is now symptom free. The ultimate test will be if she returns to laying. I know what the literature says, but it also says that turkeys do not get Mariks from chickens , except when housed in those large poulty houses with chickens. So viral loads may be a factor and in our backyards would have much less concentrations of virus. So the vaccine may have some value to our already exposed birds. At lease I can hope. I am not loosing any more birds since I vaccinated everyone. I culled 3 burds 2 weeks ago , in my flock, they where unvaccinated growout cockerals and some old retired production layers, that where never vaccinated. I just learned how to vaccinate birds at home. My hubby is a pedicatric Oncologoist. It was from his guidance that I made this choice, Whooping cough/Pertussis vaccine in humans is a Leaky vaccine like Mariks and works better in humans that have not been exposed. But we use it to booster people or vaccinate anti- vaxers in endemic areas .

 

[rbum]

I have a problem with Mariks disease after I purchased 12 week old deathlayer pullets. Almost a year later I am still loosing some unvaccinated birds and I lost one vaccinated bird. So I vaccinated my whole flock at home. I boosterd already vaccinated birds, Unvaccinated birds that have been exposed to my flock, chicks and grow outs from my clean rooms. even the turkeys. I also vaccinated one slightly symptomatic, hen( standing on one leg, stopped laying, isolating herslf from the flock.) It's been 4 days and no side effects. The real suprise is the symptomatic hen is dramatically better. Has anyone ever vaccinated adult , exposed or symtomatic birds with positive results?

Also they want to destroy the whole flock if any of them get Mareks

 

[australorpia]

But we use it to booster people or vaccinate anti- vaxers in endemic areas .

Interesting. How do you do that?

 

[Pandang81]

I understand that the ideal situation is to vaccinate chicks while still in the egg. But these studies are done in big chicken houses, with the assumption that ALL comercial hatcheries are Mariks positive. I can't do that , so I'm more interested in what I can do. I keep chicks that I hatch plus grow outs in an indoor clean room, exercising strict bio-security. I vaccinated them at home, as it is practical but generally not day old chicks. No birds leave my farm over a week old without being vaccinated, but people get thier nickers in a twist about vaccines, I give them a window to come get thier chicks before I vaccinate them. Since I have extra vaccine I boostered my flock. Its been a week out and there are no side effects to any chicken, any age, that I vaccinated, or the turkeys that live with them. To my surprise the Frisian gull that I was going to cull for symptoms is now symptom free. The ultimate test will be if she returns to laying. I know what the literature says, but it also says that turkeys do not get Mariks from chickens , except when housed in those large poulty houses with chickens. So viral loads may be a factor and in our backyards would have much less concentrations of virus. So the vaccine may have some value to our already exposed birds. At lease I can hope. I am not loosing any more birds since I vaccinated everyone. I culled 3 burds 2 weeks ago , in my flock, they where unvaccinated growout cockerals and some old retired production layers, that where never vaccinated. I just learned how to vaccinate birds at home. My hubby is a pedicatric Oncologoist. It was from his guidance that I made this choice, Whooping cough/Pertussis vaccine in humans is a Leaky vaccine like Mariks and works better in humans that have not been exposed. But we use it to booster people or vaccinate anti- vaxers in endemic areas .

So it has been 6 months…did you still have deaths here & there in your flock after vaccinating already exposed birds?