Author Topic: Vaccinated and unvaccinated stock (Read 2599 times)

ellied · « **on:** October 09, 2015, 07:27:12 pm »

I am expanding my laying flock and going to look at some pol pullets at the weekend. The seller made a point of telling me they are double vaccinated, but I'm recalling some discussion about mixing vaccinated birds with unvaccinated ones and starting to worry.

I have 15 at the moment and all but one were bought in as pullets from various sources including Lanark mart, local breeders and other keepers with too many or giving up. I can pen the newcomers separately for a while til they settle and are clearly healthy, but am I imagining the conversation or am I putting my existing hens at risk if they're not vaccinated? The one homebred hen is definitely not vaccinated, that's the only one I can be sure of. Or am I having an anxiety attack over nothing - it's a fairly regular feature if so!

Victorian Farmer · « **Reply #1 on:** October 09, 2015, 09:07:19 pm »

I kept both whith no problem if they have good umatey there will be no problem.

Eve · « **Reply #2 on:** October 10, 2015, 11:05:27 am »

Double vaccinated? Haven't heard that one before. Some vaccinations need to be given twice, maybe that's what he means. Vaccinations are tricky to get right, though (temperature has to be exact etc) and they don't give a 100% guarantee.

Yes, it's been mentioned many times here by experienced keepers not to mix vaccinated and unvaccinated stock.

Daisys Mum · « **Reply #3 on:** October 10, 2015, 12:23:32 pm »

I've mixed and yes I have had problems but it was usually the older vaccinated birds that I lost!

chrismahon · « **Reply #4 on:** October 13, 2015, 01:16:48 pm »

It's only recently that intensive breeders have vaccinated (or immunised) for Mycoplasma as well, so older vaccinated birds can be infected and die as the new ones are carriers- the immunisation uses live viruses of each infectious group of ILT, IB and Mycoplasma. My advice would be to run a separated double flock keeping the new ones well downwind of the older ones. Buying in any birds carries a risk, so best guard against potential disasters.

Womble · « **Reply #5 on:** October 13, 2015, 01:28:40 pm »

Did you mean "older un-vaccinated birds" Chris?

If so, that's what happened to us - we bought some replacement pullets from a reputable breeder, and kept them quarantined for three weeks before mixing them with the existing flock. A week later, the original birds started to come down with Mycoplasma (whilst the new ones were unaffected).

We ended up re-homing the new bought-in birds and culling all our existing ones (the Jury's out on whether that was the right thing to do, but we acted on the best information we had at the time). Either way, it was pretty traumatic, and also took us 18 months to get back to where we started. Now, any new hens come in as eggs only.

Ellied - can you find out what these birds have been vaccinated against? It's only certain vaccines that can sometimes cause problems.

Marches Farmer · « **Reply #6 on:** October 13, 2015, 03:22:01 pm »

As I understand it the Marek's vaccine is live and although it stimulates an immune response in the vaccinated bird the bird is a carrier and can excrete the virus at times of stress, such as moulting. We, too, now buy in eggs. If we ever bought in a new cockerel we'd quarantine it for at least six weeks then run it with a "sacrificial" hen for another six weeks to see if the hen remained healthy.