What exactly does breed for resistance mean?

[snowbird]

Quote:
The mareks should be given first day, vaccine should be no older than one hour after mixed. Some of the other you can double up when they are old enough. Some have to be given individually. I only post this to try and help some of the newer people keep from loosing all their flock. Myself I will not buy an adult or chick unless it has been vaccinated for Mareks. This is certainly an individual decision but please do not take sick fowl to a show and infect everyone else.

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
I read you can dose for Mareks for up to one week oles. Does that sound right?

Mareks should be given the first day as once the chicks are exposed to the chick down after the hatch they are exposed. If you had a sterile environment with no other chicks or fowl around you could probablt get by at one week. I buy enough Vaccine before I start hatching and only set eggs one day a week. I discard the unused vaccine.

 

[Chris09]

Don - (snowbird)
Nothing by this but from what I read in your posts your not breeding for Disease Resistance. Is this correct?

Chris

 

[Noncentzter]

Culling - When non-vaccinated birds come down with a disease, do you cull (kill) or separate hoping they survive? So far I have been separating and only one has survived and is doing quite well.

 

[kathyinmo]

Quote:
OH, that's a good question! I didn't think of that one. However, if you kept it, wouldn't it infect (or expose?) the others?

 

[Wynette]

This is an excellent and VERY interesting discussion! Thanks, Kathy, for starting the thread. I for one DO vaccinate - for Mareks only. It is quite prevalent in my state. Respiratory issues - nope, cull.

 

[ruth]

Quote:
I don't show and now that you've posted this, I guess I won't ever attend one as a spectator either.

But, the possible disease list is endless and once you start with vaccines, where does one draw the line? How many different injections of viruses and chemicals and medicines and poisons will it take to keep a bird alive and "Healthy"???? Isn't there such a thing as just being naturally healthy and disease resistant? Using myself, for example, Praise the Lord, but I am never sick. I have never had a cold or a flu in my life and I am 51. Surely I've been exposed to the same things that make others sick but there's obviously something about my immune system that naturally fights it. Or, people in third world countries that drink water that would drop an American dead in his tracks after taking a drink.

In my understanding, resistance forms by being exposed to something and living through it and developing an immunity to it and hopefully, that immunity is passed to the offspring.

But, as I posted earlier, I don't think birds (or any animal) raised in pens their entire lives can ever be naturally healthy so, in that case, I think you probably do have to use major meds and chemicals.

 

[speckledhen]

This is certainly an individual decision but please do not take sick fowl to a show and infect everyone else.

Amen to that!


If a bird recovers from a disease that has the potential to make it a carrier, I would cull, period. To me, there is no other option. I see folks on BYC all the time selling birds in BSA when they've recently had serious respiratory illness in their flock (which they've posted about), to me highly unethical unless they tell the buyer that the bird has the potential to make his/her current flock ill and then allow the buyer to make an informed decision. And you can bet that isn't something these sellers bring up to their buyers. Of course, that is a side issue to the original thread subject.

To reiterate, breeding for resistance does not mean you let birds become ill and recover and keep that bird in your flock. That doesn't make a resistant flock, only an immune-compromised one. It means you cull immediately (speaking only about contagious illness here).​

 

[snowbird]

Quote:
If I could I can not afford to do it that way. The way I look at it , same as vaccinating our children. Vaccinating takes out all the worry about if you will be lucky and not have a breakout of some kind.

 

[halo]

Quote:
Me, too.