Jest Another Day in Pear-A-Dice - Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm in Alberta

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that is why I am going to keep searching until I can find a vet that will do a blood draw on my last sex-link to find out once and for all if I have Marek's in my flock or not. I wish I could have afforded to send my little Gravy to the university for a necropsy since I was actually right there with her when she passed but the timing could not have been worse since we had workers showing up the very next day to put on the new roof and replace windows and that drained us until the loggers come.
 
I had a dream where the puppies locked Tara & Rick up in the containment areas, then took over the farm & house. That Emmy is very smart and has had plenty of time to put her machinations into effect.
 
chickisoup said:
that is why I am going to keep searching until I can find a vet that will do a blood draw on my last sex-link to find out once and for all if I have Marek's in my flock or not. I wish I could have afforded to send my little Gravy to the university for a necropsy since I was actually right there with her when she passed but the timing could not have been worse since we had workers showing up the very next day to put on the new roof and replace windows and that drained us until the loggers come.
Click to expand...

If you do close your flock. You cant get rid of the virus its stays viable in the soil for years. I dont even know if it can be purged from the soil... this is why I wont even consider ex battery chickens....

Seminolewind has a Marecks flock. She does add to her flock but only vaccinated chicks. This way while they do have health issues due to the immunity issues they live a pretty normal life. I believe hatching eggs are virus free if I am not mistaken.

deb
 
perchie.girl said:
Quote:
OK.... the virus is viable for up to 65 days according to this article....

https://www.chemours.com/Disinfectants_EMEA/en_GB/news_events/article20080828.html

this is a company in Great Britan... and it describes disinfecting in a commercial operation... specifically for Marecks....

I just wrote to Cornel University which has a chicken site.... and posed the question Will these steps work to eradicate Marecks and can it be scaled for a home operation.

I think one of the defining differences is in a commercial property they are using extreme biosecurity or they should be... in a home environment the birds are Every Where on the premisis... I think I just answered my own thoughts on the subject... wont work because you cant sterilize nature... Dander will be every where the chickens go...
th.gif


so much for circle thinking

deb
Click to expand...
 
Heel low:

Puppers are down for a puppy nap...so quickly will address Marek's Disease (MD).

Breed for resistance, those that live and live well, breed from them and make more. Those that get sick, are not your breeder birds. Set and hatch from eggs out of cocks and hens, not cockerels and pullets...by living they prove you should have more like them. Yer oldsters live because they are able to...
smile.png


Marek's Disease is spread in the dander...as the old saying goes, "if yer chickens breathe, they have been exposed to MD!" MD is like ILT, it can come in on the very winds...you got no persons within ten mile radius, you don't show, you don't go to auctions, you don't have fellow chook persons visit, you don't come in contact with dust from other persons with birds...I guess THEN you may never get MD at your yard.

Since I don't live in a bubble...don't have my very AIR filtered (not sure exactly how you would clean air like that and if you could afford to do that sorta thing??)...then you gotta do what you gotta do. Some of those rough necked ready barnyard mutts thrive whereas coddled (<--more like you crippled them) and kept pristine clean birds don't. I am not against biosecure measures...do the best you are able in that regard but we cannot live perfectly safe, we run risks no matter what we try and how hard to be safe.

Why are the factory farms having crap fits over MD...because they breed for weak birds, busted legs, heart attacks, can't survive crapola. So breed from the strongest of your birds, the ones that THRIVE in your conditions--the old ones!

Vaccinations like the factory mush meat and swill egger farms do...DON'T WORK! They are losing birds left and right of center...lmbo. They are creating worst MD than ever...in Gail's book she cites there are SIX MD strains...I am betting since 1994, there are more and worst ones! Know of one kind, not sure it has made it up here to the Great White North yet, but maybe, eh?

So...



First off, get a copy of this book (nfi)

- The Chicken Health Handbook, By Gail Damerow, Copright 1994, ISBN 10 0 88266 611 8 (pbk).

Answers these kind of questions...I keep mine handy for times like these questions.


Get some turkeys or get some turkey litter (dirty as in pooped in). Put that in with your baby chicken chicks and let them eat some turkey plops (dried will do!). Glenn Drowns of Sand Hill Preservation raises his chicks and turks poults together and has NEVER dealt with problems associated with MD in his flock...only by bringing in outside birds would he have an issue. Turkeys harbour a weaker less virile strain of MD and vaccinates the young chickens against MD...kewl eh! Now don't house turkeys with chickens because the turkeys suffer, chickens can have blackhead disease (eating earthworms which are a host of the blackhead!) which does not really harm chickens but KILLS TURKEYS (do an autopsy, if you got bad looking livers in the turks--that be blackhead disease!).


Off my website...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Disease Resistance​


Our animals count on us to keep them safe, healthy, and happy. It may seem harsh, but only the healthiest and fittest animals should procreate. To replicate from unthrifty or non-vigourous stock is to perpetuate ongoing problems. As stated so fittenly in the article "What Is Marek's Disease?" by K.J. Theodore, "If your chickens breathe, they've been exposed to Marek's!"

Rather than enslaving ourselves to a vaccination program, we are breeding our poultry for natural resistance against one of the more common chicken diseases, Marek's (some chickens carry a resistance factor "B21").

To read the full article, "What is Marek's Disease?" go to: http://www.shagbarkbantams.com/page9.htm

"The future will bring increasing pressure on the fancier to vaccinate his birds against various diseases prevalent in large commercial flocks. He would be well advised to breed resistant strains by breeding from the survivors, since once a vaccination policy is started it cannot be stopped."
- Page 193; “Creative Poultry Breeding” by Dr. W.C. Carefoot, M.Sc., Ph. D. – 1st edition 1985, Published by Veronica Mayhew ([email protected]).


"I completely agree that bantam flocks should not be vaccinated against Marek's disease. A strain of birds should naturally resist the disease. My own observations strongly suggest that strains of birds can be bred resistant to Marek's disease."
- Page 4-5; "Observations on Heredity and Disease Control" by Donald Perham, American Bantam Association Quarterly, Summer 1978.


"MEDICATION..."
"...The use of medicines including drugs, feed supplements and antibiotics should be governed by a few basic facts:"

"1. Antibiotic or drugs have no effect on the viruses which cause major diseases such as laryngotracheitis and Marek's disease.
"2. There are products which will help cure a disease such as coryza but what is gained thereby? The recovered birds will be carriers--a hazard to the next crop of young birds.
"3. By feeding a commercial feed it is almost impossible to have nutritional deficiencies. Those, however, who think baker's bread and scratch grain better than commercial mash might well have to buy some of the feed supplements."
- Page 5; "Chicken Diseases" by F.P. Jeffrey, Copyright 2005, Published by the American Bantam Association.



"VACCINATION..."
"...Commercial poultrymen have nothing to fear from fanciers because they have the privilege of protecting their birds against as many diseases as they wish."

"The author makes these recommendations:

"1. Marek's disease--no. Breed for resistance.
"2. Leukosis/Sarcoma group--no. Breed for resistance.
"3. Infectious bronchitis--no. The disease itself is of no consequence.
"4. Laryngotracheitis or pox--yes. If the disease is prevalent in your area or if you show birds in many parts of the country.
"5. Newcastle disease--no. The mild form of this disease is so widespread that vaccination is not necessary."
- Page 6; "Chicken Diseases" by F.P. Jeffrey, Copyright 2005, Published by the American Bantam Association.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So don't get rid of your surviving chooks...make more of the same...if they live at your house, make more!
wink.png



I have a ton of photos to get thru here peoples...hope I can get round to posting some here...so much fun.

Doggone & Chicken UP!

Tara Lee Higgins
Higgins Rat Ranch Conservation Farm, Alberta, Canada
 
perchie.girl said:
OK.... the virus is viable for up to 65 days according to this article....

https://www.chemours.com/Disinfectants_EMEA/en_GB/news_events/article20080828.html

this is a company in Great Britan... and it describes disinfecting in a commercial operation... specifically for Marecks....

I just wrote to Cornel University which has a chicken site.... and posed the question Will these steps work to eradicate Marecks and can it be scaled for a home operation.

I think one of the defining differences is in a commercial property they are using extreme biosecurity or they should be... in a home environment the birds are Every Where on the premisis... I think I just answered my own thoughts on the subject... wont work because you cant sterilize nature... Dander will be every where the chickens go...
th.gif


so much for circle thinking

deb
Click to expand...
after my own research, that is the conclusion I arrived at as well Deb.
 
perchie.girl said:
I see only one problem with the cull method... once its on your property they will all get it. and how do you breed up for resistance if you have no birds?

NOt being argumentative... just want to know.

deb
Click to expand...
Yep. my thoughts.
Not have my hopes up if it is Marek's for my last little red sex-link since she came from the same (found out too late) not so great hatchery as my Gravy and Nugget. Don't know if they were actually vaccinated and like I already mentioned, my Miss Noodle was never vaccinated as she was hatched here but she was actually from an egg from a neighbor's flock (not the healthiest) and raised by one of the rescue hens. However, my 3 Aussies came from Cackle Hatchery and I know they were vaccinated, were exposed to my environment and the possible carriers as chicks (last year) and have been completely healthy with their only problem being picking up "bugs" from one of my reds over winter and being incredibly prone to going broody on me!
 

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