Mycoplasma Vaccine - Anyone do this? Pros vs cons?

[Rosie85]

I haven’t ever vaccinated my chickens for MG. But it is quite a common disease in some backyard flocks, simply because some people will sell sick or exposed birds for profit without considering that someone’s whole flock may become sick or MG positive with one carrier bird. Swap meets, poultry shows, and 4 H are other possible ways of getting it. If I was getting healthy baby chicks from a hatchery, I would not vaccinate or worry too much about it.

Thank you so much for easing my mind! that one post in particular about someone claiming they never brought new birds in after purchasing from a reputable hatchery just really freaked me out! Especially because I was hoping to sell layers here in the future as part of my business. I just want to make sure they never get anything weird, at least to the best of my ability.

 

[Rosie85]

Here is information from a very reputable sourceMycoplasmosis in Poultry - Poultry - Merck Veterinary Manual https://www.merckvetmanual.com/poul...Ftfs30qFD2bsp99FawhoCHMUQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.dsMercks Manual

Thank you so much!

 

[Kiki]

Definitely! I guess part of why I’m overly concerned and wondering if I should vaccinate in advance before letting them out into the field here, is I have also learned from our neighbors that years ago the last people to live on this property also kept poultry. I had hoped to farm poultry here/make it a business, but want to make sure my first ones here are all safe and healthy from the get-go before even attempting to go NPIP.

I can admit I’m also a little bit of a germaphobe on top of it all, so seeing those posts in groups recently definitely made alarm bells ring in my mind unfortunately.

You and your birds will be fine as long as you don't buy and bring home diseased birds from the lady who's letting you go to her house to pick up birds.
People sell sick birds all day long. They don't care if you get the disease when they already have it.

Don't buy birds from anyone you can't investigate here on BYC. If they aren't a member here take it as a red flag.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I free range, and I'm NPIP. I also maintain a closed flock. I have never vaccinated. It comes down to risk tolerance, and risk management.

For me, in my conditions, I judge the risks low enough that I can forego the vaccination - which doesn't [completely] prevent the disease, it just greatly reduces the lethality. That even though a positive diagnosis during once yearly testing would result in me destroying my flock (see sig, below).

Your risk tolerance may differ.

/edit to add "completely"

 

[NanaK]

All the above is great advice.

One other thing you can do to help keep disease out of your flock is to prevent wild birds and rodents from getting in their feed. At night when I close up the coop I sit feeders inside a large metal cans.

Wishing good health to your flock!

 

[RoyalChick]

I don’t know anything about the vaccine except what I can read on the Zoetis site.
It is always advisable to quarantine even healthy looking chickens that you bring in. The exception is day old chicks from a hatchery which are most likely to be disease free.
MG is one of the major reasons to quarantine. It can have a slow incubation (up to 35 days I believe) so you need to set up a quarantine that will work for that long.
That said, if after a period where the incoming chickens seem healthy I have shortened the quarantine after getting a negative throat swab PCR test for MG.
The test isn’t perfect, but combined with a couple of weeks of quarantine, and healthy looking birds, I personally feel comfortable reducing quarantine below a month, and the fact that my starting point is a month will tell you I am risk averse when it comes to disease!

 

[Rosie85]

All the above is great advice.

One other thing you can do to help keep disease out of your flock is to prevent wild birds and rodents from getting in their feed. At night when I close up the coop I sit feeders inside a large metal cans.

Wishing good health to your flock!

Thank you so much and that is great advice! I guess that is one of my fears too, mostly just having a pathogen infect my whole flock even if I’m not bringing in birds from sketchy places etc. I just became worried seeing posts about it from reputable farms in the area recently :/ I appreciate the well wishes!

 

[Rosie85]

I don’t know anything about the vaccine except what I can read on the Zoetis site.
It is always advisable to quarantine even healthy looking chickens that you bring in. The exception is day old chicks from a hatchery which are most likely to be disease free.
MG is one of the major reasons to quarantine. It can have a slow incubation (up to 35 days I believe) so you need to set up a quarantine that will work for that long.
That said, if after a period where the incoming chickens seem healthy I have shortened the quarantine after getting a negative throat swab PCR test for MG.
The test isn’t perfect, but combined with a couple of weeks of quarantine, and healthy looking birds, I personally feel comfortable reducing quarantine below a month, and the fact that my starting point is a month will tell you I am risk averse when it comes to disease!

Wow! 35 days! That’s definitely good reason to quarantine for a long time though, and I’m so glad you shared that with me! I’ll be very careful even if I were to bring in birds from a reputable NPIP breeder knowing that (you can never be too careful)!

I read that MG can also be transferred by egg too which is scary because other than chicks from an established NPIP hatchery, I was hoping to purchase hatching eggs as well. I’m still on the fence about vaccinating the new chickens I do have simply because they are hard to find specialty breeds. That and I love them of course and would hate to lose them to any illness. Thank you for the information

 

[Rosie85]

I can’t thank you all enough for sharing advice and wisdom as I’m new to all of this! These chickens that I have now were definitely a costly investment, so at the risk of beating a now dead horse (sorry to keep bringing this up/you have all calmed my mind and concerns significantly), has anyone here used this MG vaccine at all? Or any vaccines on their poultry?

If you have, please share if it was difficult to administer the vaccine/if there happened to be any side effects? I just don’t want to regret vaccination.

I’m really starting to think I might just go ahead and vaccinate for MG and Mareks just because posts I’ve been seeing have me worried still. That and they were costly to acquire and raise up. Something about illnesses “living in the soil” really bothers me, especially if I hope to let them out once the weather is nicer. They deserve greens and sunshine, so vaccination might be the route to go as much as giving a chicken a shot sketches me out…

Thank you all so much!

 

[U_Stormcrow]

Coccidia live in the soil (and in the intestines of every higher living animal). They are essentially every place on the planet humans have been. Your birds will always have them, its only a problem when their bodies can't keep them under control.

Which is why many starter feeds have amprolium in it. Disrupts the coccidia's ability to thrive, gives the birds a leg up aon getting their ssytems in oreder before the coccidia have a chance to try and overwhelm them. I don't use it currently, but have in the past. Now I do innoculation by brief exposure - moving a bit of outside dirt into the brooder box after the first week.