What causes mereks? only 1/2 of my chicks were vaccinated for mereks

[ging3rhoffman]

I seen a post where someones chicks got mereks and I was wondering what causes mereks. When I ordered my chicks I had them vaccinated for mereks, but a couple of days later I went to my feed store and they had chicks so I bought a few more and I called them later and they said there were Not vaccinated for mereks and there was no reason to vaccinate. They are all 6 weeks old now and no problems yet.

 

[cackle]

I would also like to know the answer.

Thnaks

 

[chickensioux]

Mareks disease is a virus. It is in the herpesvirus family. Causes paralysis and death. It is very common.

 

[Glenda L Heywood]

Mareks is in all chicks
it just rears its head when they have high stress
tooooo cold
toooo hot
and your vacinated birds won't hurt the not vaccinated ones
so they will be fine together

 

[Jenski]

Marek's is extremely common, and most backyard folks may not even be aware their flock may have a version of it. It has several different forms, all of which can be fatal.

This may be more than you wanted to know, but here's some good info:

http://www.merckvetmanual.com/mvm/index.jsp?cfile=htm/bc/203602.htm

There is more and more discussion on the forum on whether or not to vaccinate, and there are many different opinions on this.