After my recent horrible experience buying a laying hen from a local farmer that was sick, I've vowed to do things very differently. I want to make sure all my birds are as healthy as possible. I'm looking into NPIP certified hatcheries, and I'm also trying to learn as much as I can about biosecurity and anything else I can do so everybody stays healthy. So vaccines are on my list. I found McMurray's sells vaccines as well as already vaccinated birds, but a few vaccines are not offered by them. I found this one that says it's for MG, but it's expensive. Do any of you have experience or more info on this? Does it really work? Since MG is a bacterium I wonder. http://www.randallburkey.com/CRD-Vaccine-1000-Dose/productinfo/25035/ I think I will be getting the ones from McMurrays if I get baby chicks so that I can provide that health coverage. They offer Coccidiosis and Marek's done at the hatchery before chicks are shipped. So that's a given. Out of these which ones do you guys use or think are the most useful/important? Newcastle/Bronchitis AE and Fowl Pox Laryngotracheitis Coryza MG/CRD
From what I have read, this bacterin type of mg vaccine prevents symptoms of mg, but if your birds are exposed to mg they will still catch it. They would just be asymptomatic carriers. I am not saying that to discourage you from the vaccine or anything, but I think it's important to be aware of its limitations, so that mg doesn't get spread around from carrier birds. There are weakened live mg strains as well, in other mg vaccines. The live vaccines do prevent birds from becoming infected with pathogenic strains of mg, but I don't know if we backyard chicken keepers can buy these live vaccines anywhere. The mareks vaccine prevents the birds from getting tumors from mareks but they can still become infected and be carriers. So there are similar concerns with having infections in your flock that you don't know about and can spread to new birds. Just stuff to keep in mind. I don't know as much about the other poultry vaccines so I can't comment on those.
Thanks Amina! I've been reading more, and have decided the CRD vaccine isn't right for me here. The Marek's vaccine is offered by so many hatcheries, I just figured it was one of the standard ones. Don't lots of people get chicks with this vaccine? I am still really new to keeping chickens, and I just want to make sure I do a better job.
