If you own chickens, you should be aware of a very common illness called MAREKS DISEASE (MD) that many chickens have.
What is Mareks Disease? It is a virus that causes tumors to grow on the internal organs of chickens and this disease kills more chickens than any other disease. It caused widespread and devastating losses of poultry in years past.
DISEASE
Mareks disease is a very common disease in chicken flocks that is highly contagious. Chicks between the ages of five to twenty four weeks of age are most susceptible to contracting this disease.
Mareks Disease is grouped with the herpesvirus category of viruses. This disease is also commonly referred to as 'Range Paralysis'. Your chickens can catch this disease even they have not been in direct contact with infected birds or people who have touched diseased birds. Birds that are not killed by the tumors this virus causes are lifetime carries. They shed the virus through feather dander that becomes airborne.
Mareks Disease has been very exciting to researchers because it is used to study cancer in all species, including people. Researchers were actually able to create the very first vaccine for any species that was effective to prevent cancer.
This disease is highly contagious and the only way to prevent tumors from growing when your chickens are infected is to vaccinate your birds against this disease. The vaccine doesn't get rid of the disease but it greatly reduces the fatality of the disease and it is much less likely to spread among your flock and others in the area.
The vaccine must be given to day old chicks as close to hatching as possible. Once your chicks are more than twenty four hours old, the vaccine is no longer effective and shouldn't be given. Chicks will become immune within two weeks of being vaccinated. The vaccine has to be given very quickly as it isn't effective after about 30 minutes or so.
Diagnosing and Preventing Mareks Disease in Chickens DISEASE
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