[Small Farmer]

We've been keeping chickens for about 8 years with mortality usually being down to visits from the fox.  After the last massacre we re-thought location, fencing, and henhouse and started completely afresh with 8 point-of-lay birds, mostly legbars. 


They've been falling like flies and we sent the last one to the RVC who diagnosed Marek's Disease, a nasty virus.  A search of TAS doesn't show it being mentioned but it seems to have been widespread some years ago.  If we're luck we'll have 3 survivors from the 8,  but they will probably be carriers. 


Has anyone got any advice.  Our vet suggested leaving it 3 months before replacing.

[bigchicken]

Yes the remaining birds could be carriers and if you want to replace lost birds I would make sure you buy birds that are injected against you disease.

[jaykay]

As BC says, you can buy day-olds (or older) that have been vaccinated against it. Usually commercial hybrids.

I have lost the occasional bird to it. I breed my own replacements in the main and I think the suggestion is that if they get the small, early exposure to it they can build up resistance. Fingers crossed. I need some more Buff Sussexes but explaining this has reminded me I'd be better buying hatching eggs than pullets.

[darkbrowneggs]

I don't seem to get Mareks in birds of my own breeding  , but sometimes when I am looking to source stock I buy in hatching eggs deliberately to avoid such problems - but then have found that many of the birds will die at around POL with Mareks type symptoms. 
 
This worried me at first, thinking it would spread to my own flock, but surprisingly I have found this not to be the case. 
 
In one instance the affected birds were reared in a pen with some of my own stock hatched at the same time, and not one of mine went down with it.

[Small Farmer]

Yes the remaining birds could be carriers and if you want to replace lost birds I would make sure you buy birds that are injected against you disease.

These were bought from a breeder who says they were all inoculated on day one.  He's replacing them all free but I'm wondering whether to mix the survivors with the new birds

[Victorian Farmer]

iff the hens were treated they would not get Merak's , i used to breed leg bars and vaccinated for 5 viruses they are soft and do catch things easey .I would get rid of the 3 and start again in the spring with good stock .Burn rubbish where they live .Hard frost etc and you shouldn't have a problem .

[Small Farmer]

That's helpful VF

[Thrasher]

Yup I'd echo VF, treat your current chook run/location/ark etc. as infected and do a major deep clean and burn as best you can. Various ammonia based products on the market to disinfect static locations (not nice but worth doing as residue doesn't linger) and then see if you can get treated birds next year.

[Anke]

Slightly different conundrum here....
Bought 5 pullets at POL from breeder in September. All fine. United them with 5 homebred POL of same age, plus homebred but bought-in cockerel. All fine for a while, now - a few weeks later - the homebred ones are dying one at a time - skinny and paralysis, we usually have to put them out of their misery. 3 gone, and another one looking not to well today. I suspect Marek's. Now if the breeder of the bought-in POL's did vaccinate them, would they be able to infect others not vaccinated?
 Cockerel is still fine and doing his job.
And if I hatch from the bought in (and possibly vaccinated ones) will the offspring be carriers too?
What is it this year - now even the chickens are keeling over (literally).... 

[Victorian Farmer]

this IS A HARD 1 ,I WOULD SAY THE  BOUGHT in 1s  WERE STRONGER THAN THE others some have stronger genes than the others .With all the damp and cold it gets to them .Try and get vaccinated stock .The others will probable be fine .When i hatch stock i look to see haw they have hatched and haw quick they grow Iv got 2 naw that are weaker than the rest .When selecting stock you need the best hens and the best cock bird in 1 breed i only have 1 hen but i no its the best.

[HesterF]

I'm glad I've found this thread. I've lost three Orpington cockerels in the last few weeks. Most of my chickens arrived in September and one of them I was sold as a small pullet but I was always a bit suspicious that he was just a runt cockerel (if such things exist). She/he never really thrived but then took a rapid turn for the worse - very thin, lethargic and then died early November, a couple of months after arriving and probably about 6 months old. I just kept my fingers crossed it was an inbred problem so I didn't get him checked by the vet (was quite happy to lose a small cockerel that I couldn't see would ever be big enough to breed from or eat).

But then one of my prime cockerels got sick (similar age but lovely and big even if he was always on the skinny side) - diarrhea, weight loss, lethargy, hunched appearance. He was whisked off to the vets but there was lots going on - worms which were treated but he failed to respond, antibiotics which also made no difference. Eventually he just collapsed and I took him to the vets so they could euthanise him and do a post-mortem. They even put him on a drip overnight just to see if he would revive which he did a bit but then died quite suddenly. The PM has been inconclusive - apparently lots of intestinal problems and also a number of small growths. The vet wondered about Coccidiosis so the whole flock has been treated for that.

Meantime my biggest, strongest buff also started to fail. Again worm problems were treated and he seemed to pick up a bit - he came away with us for the weekend and quite happily pecked his way around my in-laws garden. But after a week back with the flock, he suddenly collapsed yesterday - when he didn't come out of the house yesterday morning, I found him collapsed on the floor. He did seem part paralysed and was having problems breathing. By the afternoon he was fitting and he died yesterday evening. I've paid for another PM because I'm so desperate to find out what's going wrong but again nothing conclusive - some similarities to the second cockerel but no signs of the multiple  growths although some sign of something that looks like peritonitis. Dramatic weight loss since they last saw him about 10 days ago (even thought I often saw him eating and drinking - seemed to drink a lot). We're now paying for various samples to be sent off but after reading this thread, I wonder whether it might be Mareks?

A bit of googling has left me wiser about what's happening inside with Mareks but not much clearer on how it manifests. Can anybody who's been through it tell me what happened? Also I know that four of the hens have been vaccinated against it, does that mean I can hang onto them? Or can they be carriers even if they're vaccinated? Or if I just get hatching eggs in next year and vaccinate at hatching would that work with just those four? And if the other hens (and one remaining cockerel) seem to be OK after a few weeks, can I assume they're immune? Also they share a big run (but not house) with four ducks and two geese - can they be affected?

Thanks for reading all of this - hope you can help,

Hester

[Anke]

Hester - I Have found it quite confusing, as to what info there is on Marek's on the internet, so reallly am none the wiser at the moment. It doesn't seem to be an illness that gets lots of coverage..., but maybe this bad year has really done all srts of things to poultry's immune systems

[in the hills]

Have no direct personal experience of Marek's but a local poultry keeper told me that on several occasions she has lost silkies to it ..... typical signs of paralysis. They were hens that she bought in from auctions. The rest of her flock ..... very varied, with pekins, hybrids, RIR's, Sussex etc. ..... appeared to be unaffected/ showed no sigs of disease.


Reading about this disease, a while ago, it seems that there are several forms eg. typical paralysis, an occular form resulting in blindness usually only in one eye, a form causing numerous internal growths. Some birds partly recover but it says that most eventually die from internal growths. Transmission by feather dander and the disease is widespread and found in most backyard flocks. They may only develop symptoms when stressed and so you don't necessarily know it is within your flock. Did read that certain breeds were more susceptible eg. silkies, sebrights and that there was some evidence that lighter breeds were more prone to developing symptoms. Seems quite a varied disease.


Numerous internal growths/lesions would fit, HesterF, but maybe common with other illnesses too 


Hope you don't lose any more

[chrismahon]

Lymphoid Lucosis has similar symptoms but affects birds in isolation -tumours developing along the Lymphatic system. Mareks is a difficult one as immunisation makes them carriers. So all birds on the holding have to be done. W've lost some to LL but fortunately never Mareks, which can only be diagnosed by post -mortem.

[Marches Farmer]

A sI understand it Marek's is unlikely to be a problem if you hatch eggs and don't buy in replacements.  Problem often occurs if you buy in vaccinated birds which have contact with your home bred, unvaccinated birds (i.e. naïve).  Both Marek's and Avian Leukosis can result in tumours throughout the bird and a post mortem will confirm the tumours but which of the two diseasse caused them will need a further test.  In either case I personally would start with fresh unvaccinated stock and breed my own replacements or buy in only unvaccinated birds if I needed fresh genetics.  Once you start vaccinating everything has to be vaccinated.  I would also leave housing unoccupied for at least a year and put new stock onto areas never previously used by poultry.