Paul Smith has been going to write about their vaccination program for the thread over two decades of raising poultry, and hasn’t taken the time to, so this is an excellent opportunity to share it!
We specialize in day old chicks and send out over 1,000 a year. After all chicks to be sent out of a hatch are mailed and the ones to be picked-up are gone, we vaccinate the remaining chicks for Mareks Disease as they are removed from the incubators for the last time. Then they are taken to a brooder house and never placed inside an incubator after the vaccination. We do not vaccinate the chicks that we send out, but let everyone vaccinate their own after they arrive. Two reasons why! # 1 The unvaccinated chicks shouldn’t be near the vaccinated chicks. # 2 It is a big rush on hatch days to get all the chicks (especially when there is a couple hundred) toe punched, sorted into correct box, all required paperwork completed, and delivered to the PO by 3:00 PM so there will be at least 30 minutes to wait turn in line, and get the express mailed boxes checked in by 3:30 PM; so the delivery paperwork will be closer to correct. It’s always a relief when the boxes of chicks are delivered to our PO. Then comes the wait and concern until each new owner lets us know that their chicks arrive.
We started vaccinating for “LT” Larygotracheitis in 2004. We attended a show in the fall of 2003 and picked up a case of LT. Texas’s rules require euthanization of a backyard flock that has LT. Jan. 2004 our flock was destroyed and we started again with eggs that were saved, under guidance by TAHC, during a 3 week period before D day, plus we purchased hatching eggs from Rhea Dean Carter who had purchased several top quality breeders from us before we caught LT. We managed to save our genetics and all the varieties of Ameraucanas that we were raising at that time. Later we quit the silver, buff and barred/cuckoo. We butchered most of the entire flock, but couldn’t get them all done in time, so two workers for the TAHC gassed about 40 head. Three national champions were destroyed along with the flock, a devastating experience, which could have been prevented if we had been vaccinating for LT. Dickie Richardson, one of the TAHC workers told me, “It’s too late to vaccinate for LT now, after the fact.”
The idea time to vaccinate for “LT” is at 4 weeks of age and again at 10 weeks old, which is what we did for several years. Each batch of chicks were vaccinated at 4 weeks and 10 weeks of age. We hatch every two weeks, so I was constantly vaccinating a batch. When the last hatch of the season was 4 weeks old, we vaccinated all the breeders also. Then in 6 weeks we did it again. The past seven years we waited until the last hatch of the season is 4 weeks of age and we vaccinate the entire flock at one time. Then six weeks later do it again. This time we are going to need a change as we started hatching Sept. 1, 2015. We are going to have to vaccinate the early hatched sooner than four weeks after the last hatch in June.
There are two kinds of LT vaccine. One is chick embryo origin (CEO) and the other one is LT-IVAX, a modified live Laryngotracheitis virus strain. The CEO should not be used in a breeding show flock! It is intended for large commercial flocks that are all in and all out at the same time. Once a bird is vaccinated with CEO “LT” vaccine, they are a carrier of LF for life and can cause unvaccinated birds to get it. CEO LT vaccine is prohibited in Texas and should be nation wide in breeding show flocks!
The LT-IVAX is intended to be an eye drop but it can and will cause eye infections. It is best used as a nose drop. One drop is applied to the chicks nostril. The four week old chicks will need to be held until it breaths, drawing in the blue drop. Older/larger birds will have a large enough nostril that the drop will fall into the nostril on large fowl (bantams may need to be held until they breath drawing in the vaccine). Once the vaccine is mixed, it is only good for about 2 hours, so I mix only one fourth at a time which will vaccinate 250 head. Two mixtures will allow four hours time limit, which is more practical to get all our birds vaccinated. Remember six weeks later it has to be done again.
Three weeks after the first LT vaccination, the entire flock is vaccinated for Pox. The entire bottle of Pox vaccine is mixed at one time even though it also only has a two hour time limit for 1,000 doses. The method of administering this vaccine prohibits splitting of it. Pox is a poultry disease that is carried by mosquitoes. Mosquitoes will bring it unless the birds are correctly vaccinated. We have vaccinated for Pox for about 20 years. This was the first poultry disease that we started vaccinating for. Mosquitoes brought us a case of it, long before we had Ameraucanas. Pox will cause white sore spots on the birds red combs and wattles (if they have any-as Ameraucanas don’t or they are very small). It will cause sores over the bird’s eyes and cause them to go blind. Also it can get in their throat and kill them. Properly vaccinated birds will possess good protection against this disease.
John Roberts, from Florida, told me several years ago, that he wiped his birds down with diesel on a rag to keep the mosquitoes off them, and that he didn’t vaccinate for pox and that his birds (RIR) didn’t get pox. I haven’t tried it as we have too many to keep diesel treated. A test to see if mosquitoes are in your area: put about two inches of water in a 5 gallon bucket, put an empty gallon size jug floating on the water inside the 5 gallon bucket and set it out in the area to be checked. Leave it overnight and check next morning for mosquitoes in the bucket.
Once LT vaccinations start in early July, our place goes on lock down, and no birds leave until the last LT vaccination is completed (six weeks later).
We hope this info is helpful to all who take the time to read it. I use to think “Why vaccinate-you are just giving your birds a small case of what you are vaccinating for; and if you don’t have a problem-then you don’t need to vaccinate.” Experiences and time has changed that attitude to “vaccinate your birds for their protection, especially if you are going to show them.”
There are several other poultry diseases that vaccines have been produced for prevention, but we only vaccinate for Marek Disease, “LT” and Pox.
Check with your state’s animal health department to see what is allowed and recommended in your area. Texas has a list of prohibited vaccines.