Vaccinations for Show Birds.

[mountaintopchicken]

I had the same conversation w/Peter Brown and am thinking of doing those vaccinations (LT, Coryza, Mareks on chicks).

But the logistics confound me.

Coryza is a 2-shot vaccine, and the vac costs over $50. Don't know if you can split up a bottle and save part for the second shot, or not.

A lot of the hatching I do is under bantam Araucana or bantam Ameraucana broodies. Those little biddies can't fit many eggs under them, so 4-5 chicks at a time are hatched at intervals.

How to vaccinate according to the correct schedule on these small staggered hatches without spending zillions on vaccine? If I bought vaccine for each little batch of chicks, the cost would become prohibitive very quickly. Also, I would be vaccinating a lot of cull cockerels with expensive vaccine that will end up as stew in a few weeks anyway.

I wonder if I can vaccinate all of my adults now, and then vaccinate all of the birds that hatched out during the spring/summer, and that I have decided to keep, in the fall, all at once?

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

My birds are exposed to whatever the other breeders have in their flocks. So they are introduced to the diseases. I suppose their immune system is just above the expectation level for show birds.

Some birds have stronger immune systems and some have better reactions to the diseases in their environment. I'm assuming mine have the good immune systems or the breeders in this area just don't bring their sick birds to the show.

Ryu, why are we needing to defend the way we're showing our birds? I thought this question was asking what you should vaccinate for rather than telling us we need to vaccinate our birds?

 

[Black Feather]

Quote:
I wish I knew the answer to that! That is the main reason I don't vaccinate more than I do.

I think one downside to vaccinating is that some birds may not react well to the vaccine and die.

Some people also do not want to bring vaccinated birds into non-vaccinated flock for fear that the birds may be shedding the disease. Some birds once vaccinated will shed the disease for a while after the vaccination is administered.

Then there is the cost of vaccinating that may be a downside. Many vaccinations are geared toward large scale commercial production facilities and it's just not cost effective for small hold poultry producers/backyard hobbyists to vaccinate. Oddly enough this came up at a meeting some hobby breeders had with the local agriculture department. The commercial people all dislike us hobby breeders because they view us as disease carriers, but at the same time there are no avenues for us to acquire vaccinations to vaccinate our flocks. They put in these elaborate quarantine protocols for if a disease outbreak occurs, go to great lengths to educate us on bio-security, but then won't give us the means to vaccinate out flocks........go figure!

Oh yeah, there is also the drawback that some people might not feel comfortable sticking a needle into those itsy bitsy baby chicks for fear of stabbing them. I know I would be a bit squeamish about it.

UC

 

[Ryu]

I did post earlier that I was not trying to mandate anything for anyone. I have agreed that it is best to breed strong healthy birds. Everyone says they don't and that's fine. I'm just trying to point out that there are some things to think about when 'breeding for resistance'.

1) Sometimes they aren't really resistant, they're asympotomatic.

2) Unless you purposefully expose them to a disease you can't say that you've breed for any type of resistance to a particular disease, or really resistance to anything.

No, birds that get sick shouldn't be kept in the breeding population, I agree 100%. At the same time I don't see a problem with challenging their immune system and giving them the opportunity to become resistant/immune to a given disease.

We've had some really bad luck with some really sick birds--that's my experience with the showing world. That's why I'm going to vaccinate.

(I have a MS degree in Biotechnology from Northwestern University. I do Molecular Genetic/Biology research at the University of Iowa for a living.)

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

Are we using degrees to show who is right and who is wrong?

I believe vaccination of show birds is an option...surely they don't assume we should all be doing the same, otherwise they would lower the prices on the serums.

I thought of another one you might want to think about if you're wanting to do a complete vaccination program on your birds. Have you thought about Fowl Pox? It's a nasty disease...

I "would" skip the Coryza, being that it is a bacteria and can change rapidly. Treatment would probably be the best option for Coryza since there are antibiotics on the market for Coryza. Just seems like a huge waste of money to me...

 

[MoodyChicken]

If you're going to vaccinate, just remember that all those vaccines will make the bird shed the virus for some time. So be sure not to show your birds for a month or two after vaccination. You could spread the disease unintentionally.

 

[Ryu]

Quote:
Not at all, there seemed to be some question to my intelligence level and if I understood how vaccines worked. I do.

I never said anyone should do anything, but you guys have been pretty quick to jump on me for raising a concern based on my real world experience with purchasing show birds.

 

[Ryu]

Quote:
The vaccines I am using 2 are non-species, and the other is modified virus--so they can't infect any other birds.

I will need to keep the young stock away from the older birds to prevent them from potentially being exposed to pathogens from them, but they aren't a danger to the older birds.

 

[Ryu]

Quote:
I will let you know about sotrage and dulitions when I get my bottles.

 

[rodriguezpoultry]

I guess I never read your intelligence being questioned over vaccinations and their processes. I guess I wasn't reading into other posts enough?


At what ages are you wanting to give the birds their vaccinations?

You must be careful to put the vaccinations so that maternal immunity is not blocking the antigens from forming.