Managing flock, mycoplasma and bringing in new roosters

[EmilyAlamano]

Our flock has what our vet says seems like mycoplasma but it hasn’t been confirmed by testing post mortem. He gave us Tylan and we put whole flock on it for 6 days, but moving forward we don’t want to continue giving antibiotics to our flock now that we understand it can lead to spiraling flock health.

We have lost 3 chickens, all that were on antibiotics but didn’t improve. 2 of them were roosters so now we have only 1 remaining rooster and 30 hens. It’s too much for one rooster to manage and we want to get another 1-2 but are unclear on whether a chicken that’s been vaccinated for respiratory diseases and mycoplasma could still get sick if brought into our flock.

We want a strong healthy flock of 30-50 egg layer chickens and want to do what’s best long term. We incorrectly thought that if we got unvaccinated chickens and gave them a good life with plenty of ventilation and nutrition and pasture that we could avoid stuff like this. Please share your experience and educate me on this, we are unsure what to do and how to move forward.

 

[Lady of McCamley]

I'm sorry you've had to deal with this early in your efforts.

Many farms practice an "all in and all out" method that means severe culling of all infected animals and complete disinfection of the farm.

Once MG/MS is introduced, it is difficult to get out of the flock as the infected members are life carriers able to infect any new stock. Strict management of animals is required with isolation between flock members. Sadly that's why most go to an "all in/all out" format and simply cull the birds and start again with vaccinated flock.

Here's a good article on dealing with MG/MS in a production flock. Vaccination is typically used as a deterrent. Antibiotics only help with acute infection but do not cure and indeed can cause a resistant strain.

It's a tough choice especially if MG/MS is in the environment. Hopefully others will chime in.

LofMc

https://layinghens.hendrix-genetics.com/en/articles/control-mycoplasma-laying-hens/