Marek's Disease Virus: Test Your Knowledge

Let's see how well you know your facts about Marek's disease and the vaccine against it!

Marek's Disease

Marek's disease comes from a virus that causes an enlarging of the nerves and tumors in the the different organs of chickens. It usually occurs in chickens under 16 weeks of age and is less fatal to older chicken. Once attacked by the virus, the chicken can live with it with no symptoms for 3- 4 weeks. This disease affected chicken at the rate of 0.0008% in 2007. Chickens with this disease have enlarged and reddened feathers with white bumps on the skin. They also can have tumors in the heart, liver, and lung. Chickens could also experience blindness or vision impairments.

But wait... There's a Vaccine!

The Marek's virus was really affecting the poultry industry in the 1960s and causing a lot of chicken deaths. So our hero, Maurice Hilleman, helped make a virus against Marek's disease! Most chicken should receive the vaccine at around 1 day of age. There are different forms of this vaccine. The HVT serotype can provide up to 40 weeks of immunity. Innovate-ILT has no adverse side effects reported and can provide up to 60 weeks of immunity from the virus. Rismavac can cause some lesions as a side effect but can provide up to one year of immunity. It should be noted that these vaccines only protect against a few of the strains of this disease. So we're hoping more vaccines are made for our chickens!