Mareks Disease

[lonicera56]

I have lost several young chickens recently & my vet has just confirmed Mareks, probably brought in with a batch of youngsters I bought in June. I could cry.

I was wondering, if Mareks is so contagious what is the best thing to do with the coop & run they were living in? Should I consider burning the house & run to avoid the possibility of passing it on to any other birds, or is disinfectant good enough? - I normally wash out with Jeyes Fluid & use Stalosan in the clean house & bedding. What about the ground the birds were walking on, is there any good way of cleaning this?
I'd appreciate your comments - I am fairly new to chicken keeping & thought it was supposed to be fun, but the past few months have been horrible.

[tweedy]

Poultry keeping does have its pitfalls i'm afraid but dont give up. Is the run permanent? or moveable?

[lonicera56]

Thanks.
The run is moveable, but I wasn't sure whether if I shift it elsewhere that will open up "infected" ground to other birds.

[Henwife]

You've been very unlucky, but the chicken you are left with should be marek's resistant. Clean and disinfect the house according to your usual practice. If you want to move it to fresh ground, do by all means, but don't panic about it. You've had a horrid introduction to poultry keeping and things can only get better.

[Woodburner]

I agree with everything Henwife has said.

Coccidiosis is spread by droppings, so moving to fresh ground helps with that, but Mareks is spread by dander, and once a bird has had mareks it apparently remains a 'shedder' for life.

Personally I'd go for breeding for resistance, but if you need to bring in new stock, it might be easier to cull and start again, it depends on your set up really. I have several separate coops and runs so could isolate the various groups.
Good article here

[Henwife]

After a discussion with my vet, I went down the resistant flock route and rarely get a case of Mareks now. I have about 150 birds most of the time - many more during the hatching season!

[lonicera56]

Thanks for your comments, it's nice to know it isn't necesarily my fault. Atleast I've done all I can to help them through it.
Presumably Resistant Flock, means keeping the ones that survive & breeding from them so they pass on their resistance to their chicks etc, etc?

[Woodburner]

Thanks for your comments, it's nice to know it isn't necesarily my fault. Atleast I've done all I can to help them through it.
Presumably Resistant Flock, means keeping the ones that survive & breeding from them so they pass on their resistance to their chicks etc, etc?

Yes, at least that's how I understand it. :)

[Sparklepeeps]

Hi Lonicera,

Ive been keeping hens for three years and Im just going through the same thing. In retrospect I believe my past 4 chickens all died of Mareks. (First 3 just went wobbly on their legs and then developed leg paralysis, the last one became wobbly but was also emaciated). I visited an exotics vet with a coughing chicken - he sorted that out quickly, but diagnosed it and the rest of the flock with probable Mareks just as a side line!

The exotics vet told me that its very difficult to eradicate from the land and will remain there for 'several' years (yeah I know its a bit vague), and even cleaning the coup thoroughly may not be enough.

I am definately no expert, but I have been looking into this a lot recently. Its my understanding that birds under 5 months old are the most suseptable to it. So if you are going to introduce new birds choose older ones. Being vaccinated against Mareks will only delay the onset, its not a guarantee against Mareks (3 of mine are vaccinated - fat lot of good that did!). Its my understanding that if you breed from Mareks resistant Chickens, because the mother chicken is a carrier of Mareks, and obviously the chicks are less than 5 months old, then yes some may be resistant, but its possibly a recipe for disaster with the other chicks. It would be a good project for someone interested in building up new resistant lines, however I get the impression that you were keeping the chickens for fun and interest as a hobby and breading from your chickens that carry Mareks might not be as much fun as you were hoping for. My advise would be to buy older birds that have been vaccinated. Have you thought about Ex-battery hens? Of course there are some breeds that are already resistant (someone cleverer will tell you which breeds to choose) but I have heard of people who have bought these breeds and even lost some of them to Mareks.

I have 5 chicken left, all are loosing weight at an incredible rate. One is much heavier than the others but her breast bone is starting to become prominent so perhaps she has come down with it later than the others. One is particularly skinny. However they are all happy, doing the normal stuff and three are still laying. They are all on a tasty diet of just mixed corn to try to fatten them up, but this is futile. I cant face a mass cull when they are all acting so normally, but I will at the slightest sign of wobblyness on legs as I know thats a one way trip when they present like that.

I have decided to get some Indian runner ducks in the Spring. Mareks is not transferable to them. I am hoping that by the time they have seen out their natural lives, the ground will have recovered (after several years) and I can return to chicken keeping. I am going to use all the same equpiment (after a good clean) I figure I just need to buy a pond and some wheat for them to eat. Simples.

[Henwife]

Emaciation is not usually a sign of Mareks, but is of avian tuberculosis. Used to be referred to as 'going light'. Mareks does not remain in the ground, but can be spread by wild birds. If you want a 'proof against anything' breed, then keep Fayoumis - if you can find them. If I have bought in a single bird, it usually gets a Fayoumi companion whilst it has it's fortnight of isolation!
My work on a Mareks resistant flock has been with Cream Legbars - a susceptible breed - and has paid off. I breed my own replacements and am careful not to unsettle them at point of lay. My only Mareks loss this year has been a Croad Langshan pullet at PoL in February.

[Sparklepeeps]

Emaciation is not usually a sign of Mareks, but is of avian tuberculosis.

O heck! you might be on to something there!
This changes everything

[Magpie]

Ah, but my poultry vet seemed to think that Mareks causing weight loss was more likely than Avian TB I spent quite a while talking to the vet about the two diseases when I lost my first to Mareks last winter and TB is considered very rare here in East Anglia and when a bird has balance, coordination and weight loss Mareks is almost certainly the cause. She was confident enough to say that a PM was not worth doing.

Not sure about your part of the world though.

[Henwife]

Perhaps it has to do with the wetter western side of the country. I have had PMs done - I do have the time to take birds to Bristol VLA - and our suspicions were confirmed. What is cheering is that neither disease seems to be as devastating as some would have us believe - just the occasional bird. Both are cases for culling, which is why I needed to be certain of what was wrong. Trouble is, my birds spend so much time racing about the place that they're inclined to be skinny anyway, despite always available food.