Can you breed from birds treated for myoplasma?

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Chickenbrain2009

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Hi, I am a bit confused about this :-)19 ,
I have a current run of myoplasma in my flock. So far I have seperated them out but culled both. I now have the third bird with the same thing. They are going on antibiotics, but if a bird has had myoplasma and has been treated with anitbiotics can you breed from him or her?

I am coming to the conclusion that this is endemic in the wild bird population and cullling may not be the answer

Thanks

Pam
 
Myco is all a bit vague. We culled the one we had with it because she had chronic cankers as well. She developed Myco after the treatment for the cankers had been going for about 3 weeks. The others in the same coop are fine. It appears when their immune system is run down. Three of them in that group are our Buff Orpington breeding stock and will remain so.

I remember reading that quickly injected Tylan is the best treatment, followed by another a few days later. We tried oral and it was just too slow and Myco had taken hold. Yes it comes from everywhere and if your birds are fit and healthy they seem to be unaffected. It seems to me to be something that develops because of something else -poor diet, stress, worms perhaps or another illness. Isabella was, and remains, the only bird affected here. So I think you are right Chickenbrain, culling is not the ultimate answer, but when they have it and it takes hold it is the only option.
 
So what I am not sure is, do I only cull birds that develop symptoms? and if they have developed symptoms and been treated can I ever breed from them?
 
Would this depend on whether it can be transmitted in the egg, assuming the eggs were incubated rather than under the parent hen?
I don't know the answer, would be interested if anyone could tell us.
 
When a bird has become infected at some stage with mycoplasma, they will carry the disease for life, although will not necessarily display symptoms. The degree of infection will vary depending on the strain the flock is infected with, and the overall health of flock. Regarding strains of mycoplasma, some are more virulent than others therefore the impact of the disease in a flock will vary.

At different stages mycoplasma is more "pathogenic" this simply means it is more able to spread either vertically.. through the egg or horizontally chicken - chicken. The process of infection is done by the bacteria "shedding" meaning the bird now is more infectious, than when they are not showing any symptoms of illness. So when a bird is under stress, the immune system becomes less able to deal with the dormant disease and the mycoplasma becomes "activated" thus the bird become ill with symptoms, and at this stage the disease is more pathogenic as higher levels of shedding occur.

So, what does this mean for breeding? You can reduce the risk of shedding and thus potential infection through measures to ensure the best health, support the immune system and thus reduce flare-ups (activation) I have heard a course of antibiotics as a prophylactic can help.The best time to breed (if you have too...) is during a dormant phase, less shedding = less transmission to the egg. You then at 6 weeks might want to further protect the offspring by vaccination. At this point, I would cull any young birds with symptoms to eradicate mycoplasma from your flock. It is also important if you choose this route to be careful when buying in birds, or hatching eggs for that matter, as this will potentially undo any of the work you have done to protect your poultry.
 
Thats an excellent reply, thank you so much. I am afraid my Lavender aracauna is next for the chop in that case. Shes been seperated but is worse today.

Pam
 
Should I cull the cockeral that shares the same pen as he will now be a carrier?
Will all the birds in that pen be carriers? I have four left, including one of my favourites.
I normally sell hatching eggs and day olds bred from the next door pen at the moment.
What are the implications for the birds in the next door pen? Can I breed from them?
Are the eggs safe to eat? I assume so or it would be noitfiable
 
If you think forwards Chickenbrain, ultimately all surviving chickens will be resistant but carriers. The resistant chickens are the future strong stock. I have no intention of culling any of ours that may have been exposed to it but needed no treatment, because if they have been and have survived surely they are the best stock to breed from! Only the same situation as ILT, IB and Mareks. You could argue that if they were treated and recovered they are now much stronger as well.
 
Thats would be the logic, however I sell my birds on and dont want to be irresponsible, so at the moment I am leaning towards keeping them if they dont go down with it. Wha=t I dont know is the impact of the antibiotics in terms of masking symtoms and so tramsmitting disease.
 
The antibiotics only treat secondary bacterial infections Chickenbrain. They have to fight the virus off themselves.
 
OH, so it is a virus then? I thought it was a bacterial infection
I had to cull another bird today. I must say I am very down. I have disinfected everything and am giving them supplements. It comes hard on the heels of having to put two cats down and having an incubator failure and a couple of chicks dying!
The whole area smells of disinfectant.

Pam
 
Chickenbrain2009 said:
OH, so it is a virus then? I thought it was a bacterial infection
I had to cull another bird today. I must say I am very down. I have disinfected everything and am giving them supplements. It comes hard on the heels of having to put two cats down and having an incubator failure and a couple of chicks dying!
The whole area smells of disinfectant.

Pam
Click to expand...

So sorry, Pam, you are going through a really wretched time. If all keepers were as responsible as you, maybe less disease would get passed around from the sale of apparently healthy birds from infected flocks, though. Not that that's any comfort to you. How many have you got left now?
 
Echo Marigolds sentiments here too Pam, very sorry to hear :(

It is heart wrenching to deal with an outbreak of a disease in a flock, and I know how you feel, everything seems to go wrong at once at you can be left thinking what am I doing wrong? If it's any consolation I went through this earlier this year and had to make some very difficult decisions at the time.

You sound very conscientious and committed to the health and welfare of all your animals, both furred and feathered! I have no doubt you will get through this.
 
Thank you,
I am trying to console myself that this is how you learn.

I have four left from the original flock.
Six left in the adjacent pen, to date none of them have contracted it, but I am worried because it has my favourite breeding birds in there,
plus four new birds which were, and still are bing kept seperate in another pen.
For some reason two of my new week old chicks have suddently died, in a matter of a few short hours, they were healthy enough when I got them as I wanted to have some different polands. As did another new arrival, ten weeks old, and kept seperate. The ten week old was running around in the morning and on her way out a few hours later. The other two in the same pen, from the same dealer seem fine.

What I dont know now is whether I can breed from the aracuana cockeral in the same pen the other have died in. When I was disinfecting everything yesterday the survivors looked alright but they seem to go downhill very quickly. I am checking the birds regularly, giving them supplements etc, and washing my hands carefully. I am convinced what we really need is some decent sunshine. I keep bees as well and three out of four of my hives died of starvation! And now we have foul brood in the area so the bee inspector has to come round.

The reason the bees died was because of the weather! I was simultaneously looking for my cat, who had wandered off most unusually, he was diabetic. I searched non stop day and night for him for four days and nights and eventually found him miles away. The reason he had survived was because he was down with hypothermia! I rushed him to the vet and eventually he ended up at the Royal Veterinary College where I had to put him down because he was suffering from kidney failure. That was just a month after having to out my other can down for lymphoma!

Meanwhile my house is in a tip, my garden is overgrown and they are making redundancies at work, which is why I am tring to learn how to breed poultry!!

Apart from anything else this is costing me a fortune.
Lifes like this sometimes, you just have to ride it out. More than anything I want it to stop raining!

Pam
 
I have however had some good news. I spoke to a specialist poultry vet today, who seemed completely unphased, said it was simple to treat and that I could breed from them afterwards.
 
Oh Pam/Chickenbrain,
What an awful time you must be having.... Has anything got any better since your last post? I know where you must be coming from because I feel the same way at the moment. I'm having problems with my birds and I just cant seem to fix it no matter what I do.
Like you, I pride myself on having clean, well cared for birds. I never had a problem before and my birds looked wonderful. But quite frankly if anyone saw one of my trios right now I swear theyd call the rspca! Mega moult and bald patches that just dont seem to be growing back (Despite poultry tonic, ACV, cod liver oil etc etc) One appears to have symptoms of gape worm (Stupid me for only using natural wormers!) Another either has gape worm too or an upper respiritory infection and then I had a chick hatch from some bought in eggs that appears to have some sort of mico plasma and another two with curled toes (Which I did manage to fix with surgical tape and cocktail sticks- My only achievement so far!) Also a 2 week old chick with an eye infection (Probably Micoplasma too as no amount of optrex/chlrophenic is easing it) Makes me feel very down, like my flock is diseased and dirty now. Ive put every chicken and chick on Tylan soluable and Ivermectin on the adult birds for worms. It feels like a full time job that Im not enjoying at the moment. I certainly dont mind caring for them but I wish I could see signs of improvement to cheer me up.
I definately think the weather isnt helping. It wouldnt suprise me if the gape worm has been brought in by the stupid amounts of slugs we have at the moment. Ive never seen so many! The chick with the eye infection/micoplasma is strange though as it developed before I had any signs of it in any other bird (The chick that hatched with it hadnt hatched at the time) and no other chick or adult had any symptoms. It was and still is just one watery eye, no other symptoms but doesnt seem to be responding to the Tylan which its been on 4 days now so that suggests its a virus rather than an infection. - I shall post elsewhere to see if anyone has any ideas.
Sorry for rambling on in your post.....A problem shared eh :o)
Kate x
 
Well, it depends which part of the bird was affected and how and by which strain.
If the ovaries were affected it will be transmitted through the eggs... but then it may also not be!!

I have previously used Myco hens eggs and incubated them, and kept them away from the parents, and the resulting young were strong, healthy and Myco free, but again, this depends on the strain, etcetera.
 
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