Mycoplazma Anouncement (with permission) Please Read

And another question arises Susan. Could knowingly selling birds with condemnable disease(healthy or not) be construed as a form of bio-terrorism?

So Reneggaide, if I am understanding you correctly, you are saying that by refusing to allow MP (short for Mycoplasma) in your flock, you feel it is stopping a whole host of other problems that are sure to follow. That by culling MP birds, you are stemming the tide of the impending disaster? In other words, removing MP birds is the same as cutting your losses.

I suppose that that is one approach. Totally valid. Knowing where your personal limits are, that you do not want to mess with secondary illnesses or loss of fertility and vitality just at breeding age. So boot out the MP birds and save yourself the trouble/agony. This is a personal chicken keeping philosophy shared by many.

However, as I understand it, secondary illnesses are not a given. There are many factors beyond simply the MP that determine whether or not your flock will have recurring problems. Those factors vary and are perhaps beyond the scope of this thread. But from the reading I have done the drop in fertility, lay or weight gain is so negligible as to be practically unnoticeable to the average backyarder.

Before I killed my birds due to MP I would ask how likely they are to suffer from something else? What are the statistics here? How big a deal and for how long will this secondary illness last? Will it come and go or come and stay? If the bird is off for a week, is it that big a deal to me? As I see it, a bird might die or might not die from MP, it might or might not die from a follow up illness. But if I take an axe and whack its head off, that bird is now 100% dead and any potential to survive or not was snuffed out and I will never know. So birds MIGHT die from MP but will defintely be dead if I start whacking them all. So is the problem MP or my perception of the problem?

It sounds to me that this is a tolerated, managed, expected disease in much of the world's bird population and while inconvenient, NOT a regular 'cull-the-flock' issue. Unless you want it to be.

I don't think the issue here (for me anyway) is the disease at all. I think we're discussing one's approach and tolerance level for the inconveniences and vagaries of chickens. Some are decisive with the axe feeling 'nope, won't be tolerating this foolishness'. Others are more, 'let's just watch and see what happens, because we might be surprised by the outcome'. Or disappointed. I like to be able to post with the words "in my experience" and I don't think you gain that experience until you see the experiment through to the end. Reneggaide, you may be 100% correct that a bird infected with MP is nothing but ongoing illness and trouble. But before I accept that premise, I"m going to want to see it with my own eyes. I want to test this theory. So for me the idea that killing an MP flock is the only way to go, is deeply disturbing. IT's closing the book before the story is over. But this is just my personal approach...and we all have differing philosophies and practices.

I dont think whacking heads off is the solution either. What Im suggesting is that with effort and tenacity the mycoplasma can be killed off over a few generations of treatment thereby greatly reducing the risk of a visit by the axe wielding inspectors due to secondary infection. The birds immunity is lowered by mycoplasma, like if I got a cold but then had to watch out for chickenpox or whatever, similar to the problem AIDS presents. No, Im not killing my birds cause of a sniffle, Id rather treat them and breed them into a state of health, but if ILT or Newcastles takes hold its over for them.
My opinion is if the majority of non-commercial poulterers would embark on a program to eradicate the mycoplasma with products like denagard we would all benefit in the long run. We may be able then to buy birds that are truly healthy, full of vitality and production. Now think...who is benefitting from us all having mycoplasma in our flocks?

Aside, I just discovered that Newcastles disease was under development by the US gov. in their bio weapons program, so Ill go out on a limb here and suggest that knowingly spreading reportable diseases could be a form of bioterrorism, if some sicko wished to push that on us all.

Ah. Got it. Is poulterer a word?

Yup, I stole it from a book written in the 1800's.

Parvo, the dog killer, was made in a lab and "accidentally" released into the public.

Susan wrote: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?

I agree with you.

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

Wrong, very Wrong.