5-28-21
10:07 am Friday
We have heard that Malay chickens will suddenly die of heart attacks and strokes and that this is common for the breed. We experienced our Malay rooster dying suddenly of what I believed at the time was a heart attack or stroke. Our big revelation after having a necropsy performed is that Marek’s Disease virus killed our beautiful Malay rooster.
Marek’s Disease virus is everywhere, and it kills Malay chickens and chickens of many other breeds. We at Cascadia Heritage Farm have become converts to vaccinating our chickens against the Marek’s Disease virus. Some breeders argue that they only want to be breeding the healthiest, most robust chickens that can thrive despite exposure to Mareks and other viruses; but when you are on a mission to preserve and strengthen an extremely rare reed that has lost much of its prior vitality, when each individual bird you have matters very much, this approach is likely to result in heartache and failure.
In this video Shuna and Viggo are working hard vaccinating our Mukathsur City asil chicks with the Marek’s vaccine. They are doing a great job! We are going to try to learn how to vaccinate 18 day embryos in ovo before they hatch. Perhaps that will be easier, and it may give the vaccine a headstart in the race against infection of newly hatched chickens by the natural/wild virus particles that are probably on the shells of the eggs they hatch from.
The necropsy report indicated that the Marek’s virus had traveled along many nerves, infiltrated many organs, and caused lymphocyte invasion of the brain and other organs, resulting in death. What the vaccine does is prevents the clinical disease from manifesting. Vaccinated birds still have the virus and can infect other birds, but the vaccine usually prevents the birds from becoming sick and dying from the disease.
Here is a link to the full necropsy report:
Marek’s virus is believed to be everywhere other than the most bio secure facilities. I am guessing the only 100% Marek’s viruses free facilities are research facilities dedicated solely to having Marek’s virus free flocks. Here is some information on Marek’s virus:
Marek Disease in Poultry by John Dun, DVM, MS, PHD, USDA-ARS-Avian Disease and Oncology Laboratory:
“Marek disease is one of the most ubiquitous avian infections; it is identified in chicken flocks worldwide. Every flock, except for those maintained under strict pathogen-free conditions, is presumed to be infected. Although clinical disease is not always apparent in infected flocks, a subclinical decrease in growth rate and egg production may be economically important.”
Marek’s disease control in broiler breeds by A. Gregorio Rosales DVM, MS, PhD, DACPV-Poultry Health Consultant:
“Marek’s Disease Virus is present in all commercial flocks regardless of vaccination or health status.’’
We believe that Malay chickens are very susceptible to this virus because of inbreeding. If more of our Malays suddenly die, we will send them in for necropsy to verify our beliefs.
Travel stress, inadequate housing here and exposure to another strain of Marek’s virus here may all have contributed to the death of our rooster. We are improving our poultry housing and will share with you what we are working on. We will vaccinate in hopes that our Malays will not continue to die before we can breed them. We highly recommend that people vaccinate their Malays and other chickens against Marek’s virus. We believe this will help tremendously in preserving the Malay breed. Ultimately, we hope to cross Malays with more robust birds as discussed in our M.I.G.H.T, Malay Invigoration Gene Hybridization Team, Project to make them more vigorous, robust, and disease resistant.
We at Cascadia Heritage Farm will be working with George Clark of AZ to add more Malay Chickens to our M.I.G.H.T, Malay Invigoration Gene Hybridization Team, Project. We believe George has the best Malays in the US, are pleased to work with him, and recommend him to others.
Thank you Shuna and Viggo for all your hard work in vaccinating our birds.
We at Cascadia Heritage Farm believe we can make a difference and you can too.