vet thinks our house chicken has merek's. but how would she have gotten it?

[mixedchickenguy]

our house chicken has been declining in health recently and i contacted our vet who said that his main suspect is merek's. our chicken shows most of the neurological symptoms. she's a bit over a year and a half old. her hatchday is june 10th of 2023.

my main question/confusion is how would she have gotten it? we have 6 other outside chickens who haven't shown any symptoms. last summer our house chicken was outside with them occasionally (once a week or so) for a few minutes at a time. so maybe she got it from them? but wouldn't at least one of them have come down with the disease? we did have an 11-12 year old hen who passed last year but she was also in the same area as our current 6 outdoor chickens. plus, our house chicken started displaying the neurological symptoms about 2 months ago and they've only gotten worse, even after antibiotics and anti-inflammatories. wouldn't merek's have shown up earlier than that?

any thoughts/suggestions/advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[RoyalChick]

Marek's can survive in soil and dust for years. Someone picked some up on their boots maybe? It blew in an open window maybe? My vet told me it is pretty hard to avoid.

 

[mixedchickenguy]

Marek's can survive in soil and dust for years. Someone picked some up on their boots maybe? It blew in an open window maybe? My vet told me it is pretty hard to avoid.

well that's depressing. thank you for your input though.

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I'm sorry this has happened to you. Do you ever have visitors that have chickens? Perhaps it came in on their shoes or clothing?

 

[mixedchickenguy]

I'm sorry this has happened to you. Do you ever have visitors that have chickens? Perhaps it came in on their shoes or clothing?

thank you. I've had one visitor who used to have chickens but they never came inside the house. the closest neighbor with chickens is probably at least half a mile away. they come over and chat in the driveway sometimes but that's it.

 

[nuthatched]

It can also travel by dander on the wind.

 

[RoyalChick]

It can also travel by dander on the wind.

I read somewhere 5 miles - not sure how true it is. I have Marek's in my flock - absolutely no idea where it came from - my soil tests positive!

 

[BigBlueHen53]

I read somewhere 5 miles - not sure how true it is. I have Marek's in my flock - absolutely no idea where it came from - my soil tests positive!

Wild birds can carry it?

 

[coach723]

All of the listed things above are true. Marek's is much more common that many realize. Not every bird exposed will have symptoms, it depends a lot on the particular strain of Marek's (some are more virulent than others) and each birds individual immune system and genetics. Numerous variables. Have you tried vitamin supplements? Sometimes deficiencies in some of those can cause odd neurological or neuromuscular symptoms. Thiamine (B1), riboflavin (B2), D and E, along with micronutrients and minerals all play a role. I would at least try supplementing with a b complex tablet or capsule (human ones, brand doesn't matter) once a day, see if it helps. It won't hurt anything.
Most of the time Marek's isn't confirmed until necropsy, but there is testing that can be done on a live bird, that might tell you for sure if it's actually Marek's you are dealing with.
Here is a link to a lab that will do Marek's testing from a small blood sample, you can contact them if interested:
https://www.vetdna.com/application/forms/aviansubmittalform.pdf

Also see post #1 here, it's an older post but worth a look:
https://www.backyardchickens.com/threads/mareks-testing-in-living-birds.1206105/

 

[LaFleche]

As you keep her as a house chicken she might 'just' suffer from vitamin D deficiency due to lack of natural sun light exposure. The symptoms of vitamin D deficiency can be similar to those of Marek's Disease.

https://www.msdvetmanual.com/poultr...ement-poultry/vitamin-deficiencies-in-poultry