Mareks resistant chicken breeds?

[Weeg]

It wouldn't matter. Once you lose a bird to MD or even suspect you may have a problem with MD it has already spread through your flock so the Fayoumis would be exposed no matter what. Even if you removed them and they were within 5 miles of where you live they would still be carriers if they have the virus on their feather dander. Marek's dander can travel 5 miles on the wind. I touch upon this in my article that @pennyJo1960 mentioned:

https://www.backyardchickens.com/ar...-i-learned-to-deal-with-mareks-disease.76944/

Think of it this way. Draw a 5 mile circle around your property. Every time one of your birds shakes out it's feathers it will be releasing dander that has the potential to travel that far depending on what direction the wind is out of and how fast the wind is blowing on that given day. Say you have an 18mph wind going and dander from infected carriers on your property travels 4 miles to farmer Jones' farm where it lands on his birds and oops, now his birds are infected/and/or carriers. They shake out their feathers and their dander travels four miles from their coop/run and infects birds at the Brown farm. Just using those two distances by hopscotching from farm to farm that virus has traveled 8 miles. And that isn't even taking in to account the wild birds that can carry the disease on their feather dander also and may fly even further spreading it along the way.

Scary, huh? This is why Marek's disease is everywhere.

IF you have MD on your property. Best to close your flock try to bring in resistant birds and try to breed for resistance. Or bring in EFs or other resistant birds. I love my EFs. They have these beautiful hawk like faces, very fierce looking but they aren't. They are flighty and not birds that are going to want to ride around on your shoulder or sit on your lap but they are very independent, loads of fun to watch (mine will run down and eat mice) and the roosters are very docile with other roosters to the point that they will not fight and will simply give up control of the flock to another roo that challenges him.

Thank you for the kind words, @Weeg. I've been dealing with MD in my flock since 2016 and love to help fellow flock owners who are facing the prospect of living with MD in their flocks.

Thank you for taking the time to write this, that makes perfect sense. Very informative and I'm sure it will help others in the future.
Great posts from everyone, I think all my questions have been answered. Very informative and helpful thread.

 

[Crookadoodle]

Thank you for the tag, @pennyJo1960.

I don't have any experience with naked necks but I have heard from people that have them that they are a resistant breed when it comes to Marek's Disease.

I do have 5 EFs in my flock though. I chose the breed because of their remarkable resistance to Marek's Disease and other Avian illnesses.

As to their ability to carry MD, the one thing I would suspect is that if they are exposed to birds that are carrying Marek's they could inadvertently carry the dander of their flock mates on their own feathers if the disease is present on the flock owner's property/chickens. As for them becoming infected from MD positive flock mates, so far mine haven't. I have lost one bird to parasite load but my remaining Fayoumi's are disease free.

I did find this article which goes into the genetic resistance and how it works. It's a bit technical but you can wade through those parts and go to the conclusions.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6247869/

One article that I have read stated that there was a hypothesis that the more 'wild' a breed of chickens, the higher their resistance to Marek's Disease. One thing I will say, stay away from breeds like Silkies, Cochins, Buff Orpintons and Seabrights. They are all highly susceptible to MD along with Speckled Sussex's.

Thank you for posting all this information! I also read through your article about living with Mareks in your flock. I am hoping to fnd out for sure if that has been the mystery killer of 3 of my pullets in a few days and 3 more with similar symptoms in my flock of 24. Ugh such a heartbreaking week but we keep pressing on!

 

[microchick]

No problem. No, you can't give up. Let us know what you find out.

Blessings.

 

[raingarden]

Both of these groups see signs that it may be possible
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6659344/

These guys selected for disease resistance over nine generations, but it is still not enough.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03079458108418468

 

[Crookadoodle]

Along this topic of Mareks resistant breeds, are any other landrace breeds also resistant like the EF?
I'm thinking icelandic, or swedish flower hen, swedish black hen, all off which are significantly more cold hardy than EF.
I could not responsibly bring an EF into my flock knowing they are not cold hardy when we routinely get -30C in winter months here. But would be interesting to see if another landrace breed offers similar disease resistance.

 

[Weeg]

Along this topic of Mareks resistant breeds, are any other landrace breeds also resistant like the EF?
I'm thinking icelandic, or swedish flower hen, swedish black hen, all off which are significantly more cold hardy than EF.
I could not responsibly bring an EF into my flock knowing they are not cold hardy when we routinely get -30C in winter months here. But would be interesting to see if another landrace breed offers similar disease resistance.

Someone mentioned earlier that Turkens may be Mareks resistant. I want to say I read they were cold hardy, but I know that most breeds don't need supplemental heat until -25, so maybe they would do alright. I don't have any experience with that temperature though.

 

[RubyLady]

Thank you for the tag, @pennyJo1960.

I don't have any experience with naked necks but I have heard from people that have them that they are a resistant breed when it comes to Marek's Disease.

I do have 5 EFs in my flock though. I chose the breed because of their remarkable resistance to Marek's Disease and other Avian illnesses.

As to their ability to carry MD, the one thing I would suspect is that if they are exposed to birds that are carrying Marek's they could inadvertently carry the dander of their flock mates on their own feathers if the disease is present on the flock owner's property/chickens. As for them becoming infected from MD positive flock mates, so far mine haven't. I have lost one bird to parasite load but my remaining Fayoumi's are disease free.

I did find this article which goes into the genetic resistance and how it works. It's a bit technical but you can wade through those parts and go to the conclusions.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6247869/

One article that I have read stated that there was a hypothesis that the more 'wild' a breed of chickens, the higher their resistance to Marek's Disease. One thing I will say, stay away from breeds like Silkies, Cochins, Buff Orpintons and Seabrights. They are all highly susceptible to MD along with Speckled Sussex's.

Read that Sussex is resistant to Marek's. There doesn't seem to be a really reliable list of birds with resistance, does there?

 

[phasianidae]

Along this topic of Mareks resistant breeds, are any other landrace breeds also resistant like the EF?
I'm thinking icelandic, or swedish flower hen, swedish black hen, all off which are significantly more cold hardy than EF.
I could not responsibly bring an EF into my flock knowing they are not cold hardy when we routinely get -30C in winter months here. But would be interesting to see if another landrace breed offers simila

Traditionally chickens in northern Europe overwintered in barns together with the livestock. In Iceland, they were kept in turf houses connected to many other houses. They benefited from the body heat of humans, cattle, horses, sheep, etc. Many of the northern breeds don’t have the cold adeptation that people might expect. Regardless, domestic chickens across the board can intrinsically handle very cold temperatures without selective adeptation, they just won’t thrive the same way that throughly adapted breeds will. They will spent most of their time fluffed up on a roost while a genetically adapted hen will be scratching around on the floor and still laying eggs. I would expect that Fayuomi’s would survive -30 similar to an Icelandic. To really thrive in extreme cold, a chicken should have as small of comb and wattles as possible.

 

[Goldenwahintofboss]

Thank you for the tag, @pennyJo1960.

I don't have any experience with naked necks but I have heard from people that have them that they are a resistant breed when it comes to Marek's Disease.

I do have 5 EFs in my flock though. I chose the breed because of their remarkable resistance to Marek's Disease and other Avian illnesses.

As to their ability to carry MD, the one thing I would suspect is that if they are exposed to birds that are carrying Marek's they could inadvertently carry the dander of their flock mates on their own feathers if the disease is present on the flock owner's property/chickens. As for them becoming infected from MD positive flock mates, so far mine haven't. I have lost one bird to parasite load but my remaining Fayoumi's are disease free.

I did find this article which goes into the genetic resistance and how it works. It's a bit technical but you can wade through those parts and go to the conclusions.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6247869/

One article that I have read stated that there was a hypothesis that the more 'wild' a breed of chickens, the higher their resistance to Marek's Disease. One thing I will say, stay away from breeds like Silkies, Cochins, Buff Orpintons and Seabrights. They are all highly susceptible to MD along with Speckled Sussex's.

I give my chickens cds water 3 times a month. That kills all blood born viruses. I drink it also. I make sure they get it. My silkies x cochins have never been vaccinated and are very healthy. Not sure if that helps. But I have zero sickness here. None. My birds are free-range on my fenced in acre. I have marans, Oppringtons, silkies,ee. Americauna, and some crosses. Hope we never get that here. I am 100% organic as well.

 

[microchick]

Read that Sussex is resistant to Marek's. There doesn't seem to be a really reliable list of birds with resistance, does there?

I had a single speckled Sussex hen. Loved her to pieces but she developed crop problems at an early age and declined rapidly. Crop problems are associated with MD, I've read and I was having to constantly treat her for an impacted crop. She died before she was 3 years of age from the problem.

Her crop felt like it had tumors in it when she passed.

I'm thinking about adding some White Leg Horns to my flock in the spring. Read where they are one of the birds resistant to MD. It's also been mentioned to me that Naked Necked Turkens are resistant.