Mycoplazma Anouncement (with permission) Please Read

This year around April, I purchased birds that were suspected as having Mycoplazma. The suspected birds were tested I have just heard from the Chief Veterinarian and Pathologist in Airdrie Alberta and they have asked me if it would be possible for me to send them a list of people who have claimed to have Mycoplasma in their flocks and/or are waiting for test results. They need to see that this is a concern out there for other people than myself in order to see how widespread this has become so they can act on this accordingly. This list will be put together and submitted ONLY WITH THE PERMISSION of those who wish to provide their information.
If anyone has purchased birds in and around April 2012 and you suspect that they may have or had Mycoplazma, could you please contact me. Unless people are willing to come forward with their test results or have their suspected birds tested, the Animal Health Division can do little to investigate this problem further and to take necessary action.
Some of the information I recieved from them is that 90% of all backyard poultry DOES NOT have Mycoplasma nor are they carriers. Also it is NOT normal to see such a large breakout that people are reporting if these symptoms are indeed confirmed as Mycoplazma.
The Animal Health Division may offer testing by swab or blood test once the list of positive tests and symptoms is submitted. I will give this as much time as it takes for all to be notified by sending in lists as I gather information.


Please contact me if you require more information by open forum, PM or email.

Thank you

Thank you for the information.

What do they mean by " Step in and take action" ?

Yeah, what Dan said.

I'd like to know what they are going to step in and do also?

Mycoplasma is not one of the 5 reportable poultry diseases. They cant do anything. They can compile as big of a list as they want... its just gaining a breeder list/collector list. If someone wants an infected flock, they can keep it.

Are they going to make every person in alberta test all their birds? Not likely @ $80/sample.

I just got my birds tested... but thats at my own will - They cant make me because im on some list...


Seems like more misleading info to me...

[quote="Arcticsun"]Thank you for the information.[


You're very welcome!

I would hope that what the Animal Health Division might do is offer free testing of live birds, instead of charging people to do it? I am not certain but that would be my idea for sure.
I realize this disease is not reportable, but I would hope that if it is increasing in numbers affected that the Animal Health Division would indeed come forward and help us as breeders to test our own flocks so we know what we are selling and feel more comforatable about it. At $80 a test like you say Ty it is just not something a lot of people would be willing to foot the bill to test for, and maybe if they see it is increasing in different flocks they will start helping out with the testing costs. Maybe offer home test kits where a breeder/flock owner could test their own birds and submit the samples?

TysExotics wrote:I'd like to know what they are going to step in and do also?

Mycoplasma is not one of the 5 reportable poultry diseases. They cant do anything. They can compile as big of a list as they want... its just gaining a breeder list/collector list. If someone wants an infected flock, they can keep it.

Are they going to make every person in alberta test all their birds? Not likely @ $80/sample.

I just got my birds tested... but thats at my own will - They cant make me because im on some list...


Seems like more misleading info to me...

It may not be a reportable disease, but I still think it is serious enough that as a seller you do your darned best not to pass it on to unsuspecting people and birds. Why become complacent about the health and well being of our birds? I do not believe every flock has it, but if the attitude is that most flock already do have it, so why not continue selling my infected birds it's not a big deal, then most back yard flocks WILL end up with it, and I really don't want that to happen nor wish to be part of the cause of that happening. Just my 2 cents.

I agree with that Silkiebantam.

Whats not being said here is that any mycoplasma infected birds will most likely need to be treated or culled for secondary infections like E coli, newcastles, ILT and others. Drugs like Tylan may take care of the symptoms but then you only have carriers of the disease, it is only really useful for commercial broilers so the meat isnt condemned at slaughter. Denagard is a very good treatment which can eradicate the mycoplasma from breeders, chicks and eggs. The mycoplasma is only gone for periods of about 10 days, so the treatment needs to repeated every 4-6 weeks to keep production levels up. It is very expensive @ $100 to treat about 200 birds, unless someone can get it from the States cheaper. Also the Denagard is recommended to be used in conjunction with Tetracyclines to provide a synergistic effect on the infections.

Lets all hope(sic) its Infectious Bronchitis, then your wrinkled egg shells mean you MIGHT not have Newcastles Disease.

Id suggest hiding and treating your healthy stock before the axe man cometh!!

TysExotics wrote:I'd like to know what they are going to step in and do also?

Mycoplasma is not one of the 5 reportable poultry diseases. They cant do anything. They can compile as big of a list as they want... its just gaining a breeder list/collector list. If someone wants an infected flock, they can keep it.

Are they going to make every person in alberta test all their birds? Not likely @ $80/sample.

I just got my birds tested... but thats at my own will - They cant make me because im on some list...


Seems like more misleading info to me...

That's good to hear Ty. Look forward to you posting your results when you get them, as per your own word.

pluckylady wrote:
Some of the information I recieved from them is that 90% of all backyard poultry DOES NOT have Mycoplasma nor are they carriers. Also it is NOT normal to see such a large breakout that people are reporting if these symptoms are indeed confirmed as Mycoplazma.
The Animal Health Division may offer testing by swab or blood test once the list of positive tests and symptoms is submitted.

Has this statement been overlooked? I know sometimes when I read posts, I skim through them, not usually, I usually read every word, if I think it important enough, and usually it is. The information that Pluckylady received was the 90% of ALL BACKYARD POULTRY DOES NOT HAVE MYCOPLASMA NOR ARE THEY CARRIERS. And that it is NOT NORMAL to see such a large outbreak. So what IS going on? I do wonder myself.

I have not seen mycoplasma in my flocks, never, well, I think maybe back on the coast, with birds we purchased from the auction, (note to self, no auction birds to EVER buy, that was back in the early days of re-keeping poultry and thought an auction would be a good place to help start out, sigh) about 8 years ago, those are all dead now and only 5 are alive of the birds came with me from the coast when we moved, but that was 2 years ago, and maybe they are carriers, smiling. Highly doubt it, would have seen some indications of mycoplasma, these 5 birds have been through umpteen dozen stresses since our move two years ago. Surely would have seen some signs of this dreadful nasty that is rearing its ugly head if it was present in any of my areas. Sad thing this mycoplasma thingy. Gads, not sure where I am going with this, losing train of thought.

I think that you will not get many people to come forward if they think they have this present in their flockyards. My inner voice coming out. Some might come forward, but doubt many. Regardless of how things come, I think people are very worried about flock death and culling and are worried that this may happen to them too. I am following this thread, because I personally think it is very important to be as informed as possible about things. In every way, the good, the bad and the ugly. With that, all please have an awesome day, CynthiaM.

TysExotics wrote:I'd like to know what they are going to step in and do also?

Mycoplasma is not one of the 5 reportable poultry diseases. They cant do anything. They can compile as big of a list as they want... its just gaining a breeder list/collector list. If someone wants an infected flock, they can keep it.

Are they going to make every person in alberta test all their birds? Not likely @ $80/sample.

It is not a reportable disease. But I think that what they might do, is make it much for affordable for the poultry industry so that more people can get these things worked on....before it becomes a reportable disease...and it may well become that if it becomes more common than ever was (remember what they said, 90% of poultry yards DO NOT have this). I read before in a thread that almost all poultry yards had it, now tell me, where did that statement come from. 90% not to almost all is kind of a very ambiguous thing, now wouldn't ya say???). Beautiful days, CynthiaM.

reneggaide wrote:Whats not being said here is that any mycoplasma infected birds will most likely need to be treated or culled for secondary infections like E coli, newcastles, ILT and others. Drugs like Tylan may take care of the symptoms but then you only have carriers of the disease, it is only really useful for commercial broilers so the meat isnt condemned at slaughter. Denagard is a very good treatment which can eradicate the mycoplasma from breeders, chicks and eggs. The mycoplasma is only gone for periods of about 10 days, so the treatment needs to repeated every 4-6 weeks to keep production levels up. It is very expensive @ $100 to treat about 200 birds, unless someone can get it from the States cheaper. Also the Denagard is recommended to be used in conjunction with Tetracyclines to provide a synergistic effect on the infections.

Lets all hope(sic) its Infectious Bronchitis, then your wrinkled egg shells mean you MIGHT not have Newcastles Disease.

Id suggest hiding and treating your healthy stock before the axe man cometh!!

I can only half agree with you.
If you are the type of flock owner that can recognize you have a problem within your flock and you take the steps to try and treat it: quaratine and isolate sick birds, cull when needed and incinerate the carcasses, I would tend to agree with you. However, too many flock owners will not take all those steps. Most will tend to miss or ignore steps and think that if they don't see anything wrong within their flock then there really isn't.

I disagree with you when it comes to an seller. Whether the operation is privately owned or commercial, they are in the business of making money breeding and selling livestock. If an operator is selling diseased product, whether that disease is a reportable one or not, that operator is knowingly help spread disease. Remember, you might not have bought directly from them and think it doesn't then effect you. However, how do you know that a bird you bought elsewhere didn't have its origins there and could be a time bomb waiting to go off in your flock?

An operator has a responsibility to know what it going on in their business. If they do and they think because a problem doesn't fall on a list of reportable diseases and continues to sell diseased stock, they are no better than a poultry mill caring nothing about their customers. They are a hazard not only to customers but to other operators, whether they want to owe up to it or not.

CynthiaM wrote:

TysExotics wrote:I'd like to know what they are going to step in and do also?

Mycoplasma is not one of the 5 reportable poultry diseases. They cant do anything. They can compile as big of a list as they want... its just gaining a breeder list/collector list. If someone wants an infected flock, they can keep it.

Are they going to make every person in alberta test all their birds? Not likely @ $80/sample.

It is not a reportable disease. But I think that what they might do, is make it much for affordable for the poultry industry so that more people can get these things worked on....before it becomes a reportable disease...and it may well become that if it becomes more common than ever was (remember what they said, 90% of poultry yards DO NOT have this). I read before in a thread that almost all poultry yards had it, now tell me, where did that statement come from. 90% not to almost all is kind of a very ambiguous thing, now wouldn't ya say???). Beautiful days, CynthiaM.

I know from talking with the Provincial Vet a couple of years back they said that there is interest in Mycloplasma, maybe even more so than ILT. I think because Mycloplasma covers a varieity of CRDs, they want to map which are minor and which may be major. It's the major strains that they want to know about.

It's like any disease. Unless they can study and test what is out there, there is no way new treatments or drugs can be developed and found.

My only issues are that the owness is on small flock owners as protection seems to be all for the commerical operators. Because when drugs are available they are usually to much in quantity and too expensive for a small flock owner. I would like to see that change, especially as the government seems to want us to all be resposnible.

I have a problem with this.

I had a problem with this when it happened to Silkie.

From what I have been able to gather, Myco is a global, ubiquitous disease that threatens mostly the commercial industry. It makes birds less productive and prone to other illnesses in a commercial setting. BUt it would be just as truthful to say that the commercial setting is what makes chickens prone to illness. I see this finger pointing at Mycoplasma as way to keep the finger from pointing where it ought to; at a dirty industry who needs to vastly and widely CHANGE HOW THEY DO THINGS! BUt instead of admitting that keeping birds in this unhealthy and inhumane way makes them sick, let's turn the tables and make some global illness the big problem. Well it's not. Many healthy birds survive Mycoplasma. And those of us who have it in our flocks will never really see any effects from it in egg lay or production.

So are these steps that everyone seems to think we should take, going to make a difference? A real, honest, get rid of Mycoplasma difference? OR is it a lot of chest thumping?

From what I have been able to gather if you own chickens, you can pretty well count on this disease visiting you and the number one way to prevent this is...own goldfish. If the idea that you might have Mycoplasma gives you nightmares, then I just think you better give up keeping chickens. Period.

I hear overtones, whispers and the judgement that goes along with paranoia. It may be possible, with what I view as extreme measures, to keep certain diseases out of your flock. But there are other truths and realities that come along with chickens (and life) and one of those seems to be Mycoplasma. This bug is bigger then we are! So does our suspicious murmuring, our finger pointing, our pontificating on 'responsible' flock ownership REALLY SOLVE ANYTHING?

I do not think so. I think this is flapping in the wind.

I think we should never sell birds/eggs knowing we have a deadly disease that will wipe out a flock. Do not sell knowing you have an illness the Disease Patrol is hunting down. Do not sell from birds that are half dead with any kind of illness! But pretty soon, with enough running in circles and arm flapping, we can turn this into a much bigger problem than it really is. We can create a disaster where none exists.

I have said before and will say again that I WILL BUY EGGS FROM ANYONE ON THIS SITE and not give a whit if you have had, don't have, might have, been tested for, failed the tests or passed the test or have bad taste in fashion. I DON'T CARE! I accept and can deal with the vagaries and heart break and successes and failures of keeping chickens. I expect no one to give me any guarantees because no one can!

So. What exactly is this discussion about? About solving a problem the entire planet suffers from? Is it about how our own chicken keeping standards are so much better than the next guy's? Happily we are all free to keep our chickens or cull our chickens in any way we see fit. I am sorry for the toes I just stepped on but I see this discussion as redundant and spinning in the mud. Cull if you want, quarantine until the cows come home, close your flock or mail your flock to starving children in Africa. Whatever! But you are NOT going to escape death, taxes and Mycoplasma, and thinking that you can is just banging your head against a brick wall. Treat it. Don't sell and don't buy. But get over the idea that killing all your birds will buy you a free pass next time this disease lands in your yard on a robin or crow.

Good post Uno
and I can see what your are saying

Like I had said before it sounds alot like Dont cry Wolf or is it just a Witch Hunt

Well said Uno. Before all of this recent stuff, I had always understood that it was everywhere and the commercial companies had cleared it from their lines at great trouble and expense (only makes sense, a slight decrease in productivity would be unnoticed to any of us but would add up to a significant sum to a big operation). Then I searched and found some articles that pretty much confirmed what I had been told. I posted links on Mycoplasma surveys on a different thread.

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I'm always open to new information but, where it contradicts the published material I have seen, I would like to see the data that there is almost none in backyard flocks. I have searched but haven't managed to find any, if anyone does have some I'd love to see it (and I mean that sincerely, I prefer to formulate opinions with as many facts as possible).

I was at a vet clinic yesterday with my dog and we started talking about this. The vet phoned Airdrie and the response was that there is very little CRD to be found in this province, back yard or commercial operations. They then offered to test for ALL diseases for FREE. They said if I were to send a sample myself I might only get one or two things tested, but if I were to do it through the clinic all diseases will be screened. It felt more like an invitation to relieve me of all my birds than an offer of assistance. I'd also like to add that it took a while for me to explain that my chickens were neither broilers nor layers, apparently chikns only come in 2 types and consuming any grown outside of commercial industry is just plain dangerous>quote AB hatchery association.

reneggaide wrote: I was at a vet clinic yesterday with my dog and we started talking about this. The vet phoned Airdrie and the response was that there is very little CRD to be found in this province, back yard or commercial operations. They then offered to test for ALL diseases for FREE. They said if I were to send a sample myself I might only get one or two things tested, but if I were to do it through the clinic all diseases will be screened. It felt more like an invitation to relieve me of all my birds than an offer of assistance. I'd also like to add that it took a while for me to explain that my chickens were neither broilers nor layers, apparently chikns only come in 2 types and consuming any grown outside of commercial industry is just plain dangerous>quote AB hatchery association.

if you are a member on the other site you should post this there

Good for you! Go for it, that's what we need! The Animal Health Board needs to see these tests.
I wish more people had a great vet like you do who will help.
A freind up north had all her birds tested for free and is waiting for the results. It saved her $6000.00 that she wotld have had to shell out.
Pluckylady

I still don't get what all the concerns are over testing for this. Unless it's just to satisfy one's own curiosity. But testing for it is not curing it. Killing your flock is not curing it. So testing provides nothing and cures nothing so...why is anyone doing this? I suppose one might test to rule out something deadly. Of course something deadly will kill your flock so testing becomes moot.

Get yourself tested for the common cold. Have you had it? Darn right you have! Are you going to get it again? Darn right you will! So what? What's the big deal? Will you lose a few work days with a bad cold? Yes you will. Is this the end of life as you know it? No. Not even close. It's a global illness that causes sickness in billions of people, they mostly get over it. There are some lost work days but overall not a big issue and some will die from secondary complications. But healthy individuals usually shake off a cold and live to shake it off again another day! And thus it is with Mycoplasma.

I know that my own approach puzzles others here, but honestly, this one confuzzles me.

Well said Uno!!!!!! This is being blown way out of proportion!!!!!!!!

I think there are two separate issues here that keep getting muddy. As I see it, one is on the topic of Mycoplasma and it's effects on a flock. The other is about a large scale distribution of poultry known to be sick. How long does it take for test results in regards to MG, by the way?

Like you said Uno mycoplasma by itself isn't much of an issue. My issue with it is I cant stand the thought of recurring chest rattling, loss of vitality vigor and fertility just when they get to proper breeding age. I can live with it if I have to but if I don't why should I, with effort it can be eradicated and/or managed. What I can't live with, and what I think is highly misunderstood, is that mycoplasma doesnt just end there. As soon as symptoms begin to show you are almost guaranteed a secondary infection, most common is E Coli....du yu really wanna go there? Ok that's just one, ILT, Newcastles, dunno bout you but it's pretty hard for me to participate in breed conservation while waiting for CFIA to come and condemn perfectly healthy birds just cause one got CCRD (complicated chronic respiratory disease). Maybe some of you can hide your truth but I have a senior CFIA inspector as a very good friend and I don't/won't lie to my friends.
Just for the record here, all my birds appear healthy and robust with the exception of my EE flock which have always been far removed from contact with my purebreds. Not that this matters if I do decide to test for disease, I'm quite certain if I'm investigated all my efforts will come to an ugly and unwarranted end no matter what precautions I take.
The sword of Damocles could be about to fall, what will you do?