Not smart
A fellow sportsman had a problem.
Suddenly his 6 week old birds fell sick; Adeno/coli as it seems.
Unfortunately this infection can attack at any loft at any time but in this case the fancier was to blame.
He had just vaccinated his birds against paratyphoid, which is a big mistake.
Those birds were too young to vaccinate, even a vaccination against paramyxo should be avoided at that age.
Any vaccination causes stress which opens the gate for Adeno/coli.
TOTALLY WRONG
Should birds be vaccinated against salmonella anyway?
Vets do not agree.
One is in favour of it, the other is against it.
But they all agree this should only be done after a treatment with antibiotics for at least 10 days. Needling them without such a cure before is wrong.
As a matter of fact most vets advise to only vaccinate if there were/are problems with salmonella.
Some time ago there were fanciers who wanted to save work and time and practised a combined vaccination against pox and paramyxo, or pox and paratyphoid or even the 3 of them at the same time.
But they have become wiser, it is too hard, especially the vaccination against salmonella. As I said it must only be done after a cure and furthermore at least one month before mating up the birds.
Furthermore one should realise that for any vaccination the rule is that they are less affective if birds are not in good health.
Some people claim that after a vaccination against pox or salmonella during the season there will be a boost in condition.
This is a myth.
I MYSELF
I do not vaccinate against paratyphoid (salmonella) but treat ALL my birds in fall. The good thing about the antibiotics against salmonella is that they do not affect the moult.
Against pox I have not vaccinated since decades.
Pox is often restricted to certain areas.
You often hear that in a certain town or club many birds are infected, while there are no problems in other areas
Where I live were no problems since long but in case I would hear about pox in the lofts of fanciers that live nearby I would vaccinate right away.
IN CONCLUSION
Fanciers in Western Europe are obliged to vaccinate against paramyxo every year, many find this exaggerated and only needle their birds as a baby.
I never heard that their old birds got paramyxo later on.
Is one vaccination enough for the immune system?
Honestly speaking I do not know, but it looks like it.
Sometimes fanciers complain that a treat against salmonella was only effective for some months.
Probably the reason is that they also treat against Coli and those medicine are quite similar. What they do when they frequently treat against E Coli is undermine the immune system.
So once again we see how wrong it is to medicate birds that are not sick!