Where can I make a donation for Marek's disease research?

[akmarad]

Greetings everyone,

We've lost about half our flock over the last 2 years (5/10 chickens) to Marek's disease. We have necropsies performed on all who pass, so it's not just speculation. Only one of our hens has lived for 2.5 years, the rest have come and gone, rarely reaching 1 year of age. I believe our bio-security is solid, according to my studies, so not sure what else we can do.

Well, there is one other option: make a donation to Marek's disease research. It breaks my heart to think of how many chickens are killed each year from MD. I know the industry loses $1-2 billion/year on this, so I'm sure they're doing a lot of research, but I'd like to do my small part to help out.

Can anyone recommend a good research center that accepts online donations for MD research?

Thanks!

 

[BigECart]

Sorry, I don’t have an answer to your question.

I lost 7 of 9 of my first flock to Mareks - we only sent one to the state lab. Mine succumbed over a 3 month period - it was really hard. Despite the breeder’s denial, I’m sure they came with the virus.

One of the ten hens in my second flock had Mareks, but eventually recovered. I think it took 6 months and she was paralyzed for much of it - she was our house chicken until she recovered, and it was really hard transitioning her back into the flock. So far so good with my third flock, 6 chicks, 13 weeks old. I buy vaccinated chicks from McMurray. The one hen that had Mareks also had coccidiosis, so I suspect that maybe she wasn’t actually vaccinated.

So, there is life after Mareks - I buy vaccinated chicks from McMurray hatchery. We will never hatch our own chicks with a broody hen - which is fine, since that was never something we planned to do.