Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
your particular facility, or it must be done at a very early age on your farm. Once your
birds contract the disease, there is nothing you can do to save them.
Maintenance
Some folks believe that when chickens and turkeys are raised together, the turkeys “vac-
cinate” the chickens for Marek's. No one knows for sure how this happens, but it may
be the reason I've never had a single case of the disease arise in my 42 years of raising
poultry. I cannot prove it scientifically, but all of my baby chicks are raised with turkey
poults for some part of their life, and though they move to separate facilities as teen-
agers, I've never had any birds develop symptoms of Marek's.
I can't say for certain that the birds living with the turkeys are “vaccinated,” that is,
contract a slight, easily resisted case of the disease, but it seems to work for me. This is
something worthy of study on your own farm.
Mycoplasmas
Mycoplasmas are microorganisms that cause respiratory disease in all species of
poultry; you will inevitably have to deal with them at some point, unless you confine
your poultry to a secure inside pen with no access to the outside world. The most com-
mon of these is
CRD
(chronic respiratory disease). These illnesses are particularly dif-
ficult and do not respond well to most antibiotics.
Symptoms
In some cases, mycoplasmas manifest as an upper-respiratory infection, and swelling of
the face is evident. Others contract a lower-respiratory infection in the lungs, which is
more common in turkeys, where it produces a constant rattling cough.
Maintenance
Good sanitation and good fresh air are the easiest ways to try to keep mycoplasmas un-
der control. Stale confined air just seems to perpetuate the situation. Keeping birds con-
fined and away from outside contamination is sometimes tried, but mycoplasmas are of-
ten brought in from outside your farm by wild birds such as starlings or sparrows. Even
if you purchased mycoplasma-free stock, you will probably constantly have to deal with
it unless you keep your birds in an isolated environment where they are never exposed
to the outside elements.
Vaccines are only moderately effective and are not always available. Good sanitation
and culling birds that display the symptoms — if they do not recover rather quickly —
is the best approach to this disease. Antibiotics such as Gallimycin and Tylosin are ef-
fective when used at the first sign of the disease.
