# Marek - To vaccinate or not?



## LadySecret (Apr 20, 2013)

Hi,

I've never raised chickens before but I've wanted to add them to my farm for years. I've been doing a lot of research and I'm just about ready to order my first batch of chicks from a hatchery. I've decided to order fall chicks so they will start laying in the spring. The hatchery gives the option of vaccinating for Marek's but they don't recommend it for flocks of 25 or less. I will be ordering 25 chick but I expect to loose some since I'm so new to raising them and maybe I'll loose some to predators. LGDs will keep big predators away but I've got 21 barn cats and I don't know how well they will act. Two of those cats are exceptional mousers. 

So my question is: should I vaccinate? Normally I'm very pro vaccine but I've read that the Marek's vaccine is leaky and that it is contributing to more virulent strains developing. PBS had a good article about this study. I want to keep my birds safe but I also don't want to contribute to creating super bugs. Also, my reason for getting into chickens is for food security. With the way the economy is going I feel chickens are a small investment for peace of mind. I'm afraid that if I do vaccinate, I'll always have to vaccinate. And if there is some kind of economic disaster vaccines probably won't be easy to find. So to all of you who raise chickens, please share with me your thoughts and views on Marek Disease.

Thank!

Additional info: l live in western Oklahoma and my property has not had chickens on it for at least 5 years. Quail are very common in my area.


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## Suzanne_Tyler (Jul 19, 2014)

We've never done it/had it done. 

On the cats - whenever our cat so much as looked at the chicks, we squirted her with water from a squirt bottle. She makes wide circles around our chicks and chickens now


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Mine aren't vaccinated either.


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## Dayna (Aug 16, 2012)

I have 200+ chickens and mine are not vaccinated nor have I ever had a case of Mareks.


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## LadySecret (Apr 20, 2013)

Thanks everyone for your responses. I feel better now about not vaccinating them since none of you have.



Dayna said:


> I have 200+ chickens and mine are not vaccinated nor have I ever had a case of Mareks.


Wow Dayna! That's a lot of chicken! Is it a lot of work caring for that many?


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## Dayna (Aug 16, 2012)

Nah. They are mostly free range and roost in trees. They forage almost all their own feed.


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## catharina (Mar 17, 2016)

I always get feed store chicks & they're already vaccinated. I still had a horrible Mareks outbreak. That was many years ago now & the vet said the vaccine had a high failure rate (at that time anyway.)

The chicks need to stay indoors till they're fairly big so the cats won't be a problem for a while at least. Predator protection is so important for chickens as they're utterly helpless at night. They need an entirely closed area (including the top-foxes can get over very high fences & so can cats) they can use to roost in. I personally don't like chicken wire--predators can tear it loose & it rusts much more quickly than the stuff I use, which is called something like hardware cloth (?) It's that stuff that covers the rectangular vents in the walls around the crawlspace under your house.

Don't count on losing a lot of chicks. Our neighbors were told to expect at least half to die so they bought 50. Not a single one died & they had to build a bigger coop! I've had chickens for over 25 years & seriously NEVER had one chick die. I don't even have a good brooder & am not overly careful about anything except keeping them in a room where the dog & cat can't go.

There was a neighbor's cat who used to go after my adult chickens, flinging itself on the wire & clawing onto it. It terrified the chickens & 2 hurt themselves just from panicking & flying into stuff. The stupid owner said there was nothing she could do about it because it was an outdoor cat when I complained to her-like that somehow justified it coming into my yard & endangering my hens. If it had been a dog it would have been legal to shoot it, but the livestock protection law only applied to dogs. That's the only time I ever had a problem with cats & adult chickens though, in all these years, even when the chickens are out in the yard. Foxes etc. & even skunks are what you need to worry about.

Have fun with your chicks!


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## Steampunked (Mar 23, 2015)

The current Mareks vaccine is leaky and can contribute to the disease occurring - I am massively pro-vaccination, but with Mareks...ehhh. Well...

I have had two Mareks deaths in my flock. But we have vast numbers of wild birds who shed the stuff everywhere, and with the vaccinations being unreliable, instead we have chosen to breed for resistance by selecting the most stubborn birds to continue on. We cannot avoid Mareks in our local area, so our choices are breed for resistance or innoculate. We breed instead.

The people who lose a lot of chicks are the ones that don't pay attention to that golden rule - heat. Get those babies toasty warm! Warm, calm, with lots of water, and good food with a little egg in it, and more will survive all kinds of weirdness than you think.


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