Universal Ostriches. It’s been a ride.

I was involved early in the saga of the H5N1 influenza outbreak on this ostrich farm in BC, answering some questions about the situation and potential options, but eventually stepped back from commenting much as things went off the rails, in part to avoid the flurry of threats that come along with challenging the narratives from their supporters.

To recap briefly, H5N1 influenza hit the birds on this large farm in December 2024 and subsequently killed 69 of their more than 400 ostriches. They didn’t report the sudden onset of deaths to the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), which was legally required since avian influenza is a reportable disease and in this situation was very likely the cause of the deaths. Someone else apparently anonymously reported the situation to the CFIA, who then investigated. So right from the start there were indications that responsible animal ownership was lacking.

The CFIA tested the birds, and a novel assortment of H5N1 influenza virus was identified, which made the situation even more concerning. As per standard practice and international disease codes, a quarantine order was issued and a cull was mandated (which includes financial compensation for the birds destroyed).

However, the farm refused to euthanize their remaining birds, and challenged the decision in court – unsuccessfully – at various levels. They took to social media to spread the word, rally support and ultimately ask people to come to the farm to protest (peacefully). They essentially had an ongoing public campout at a farm that was under a quarantine and cull order. That’s pretty much exactly what we don’t want to do at a farm with a high-consequence zoonotic pathogen that we’re trying to contain.

Despite the large number of deaths, many birds survived, but many of those were probably infected and infectious, whether they were sick and survived or or simply healthy carriers of the virus. That’s expected, because although the mortality rate with H5N1 flu is extremely high in many domestic poultry flocks, it isn’t always 100% and can vary in different bird species. So there were still potentially infected birds around as all this was slowly winding its way through the legal challenges. Especially because they keep their birds outside, there was (and still is) concern about the farm being a source on infection for wild birds and other animals, which could lead to further spread of the virus. Ostriches are classified as poultry, and Canada’s international obligation through animal health codes is to cull infected birds unless there are strong mitigating circumstances and control measures.

From the start, the story moved very quickly from any concern about animal health to a mix of anti-regulation, anti-government, anti-PCR, anti-[insert lots of other things] fringe elements, and a lot of changing stories from the farm. Add on Rebel “News” (my quotes) embedding itself on site, rage baiting and coming up with bizzare stories such as murder drones taking out birds, the constant pleas for donations, as well as the trucker convoy elements who tried to recreate that disaster on the farm, and you can see how it devolved (the summer schedule even included a concert by convicted convoy leader Tamara Lich). An anti-vax far right pastor was also baptizing people in a river downstream from runoff from the ostriches and convoy campground (multiple levels of “yuck” here). Dr. Angie Rasmussen has a much more interesting and comprehensive discussion on the whole situation.

I have to admit, it was kind of funny watching the “viruses don’t exist,” “masks are harmful” and “antivax” crowds do the mental gymnastics in online chats to support a farm that has said they’ve played a role in developing products for masks and that they were involved with injecting birds with SARS-Co-2 antigens to produce antibodies (aka vaccination).

This week, the Federal Court of Appeal rejected the farm’s appeal to block the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA)’s cull order. That should be the end of all of this, although the farm is calling on people to come to the farm and “sit with the birds.”

There are multiple issues and levels of concern here. Ultimately, it’s a matter of national and international health regulations, and whether we are going to follow them or not, and whether there are repercussions for blatantly ignoring them.

If I drove home drunk and nearly ran over someone in the process, but made it to my driveway after a high speed police chase, I wouldn’t have much luck saying “no harm, no foul. I made it home ok. You need to let me go.” No, I’d rightfully get raked over the coals in a court of law. It’s the same thing here.

From the standpoint of further spread of H5N1 flu, has something really bad happened because of what the farm did? Not that we know of (at this point).

Does that mean we should drop everything and move on? Absolutely not. There’s a rule-of-law issue and a critical precedent here. We may have gotten lucky here. We may not the next time.

• We can’t effectively control diseases if we allow anyone who just doesn’t want to follow the rules to weaponize the court system to draw things out.
• We can’t let people blatantly ignore quarantine restrictions (while posting evidence of these breaches online).

The tough part is the birds. The last thing I want to see is animal culls, unless there’s a clear requirement, which I wrote about in an earlier series of posts. I assume all these surviving birds are flu-free at this point, so the protective value of culling them at this point is probably very limited. The bigger issue is the farm, their actions and future risks considering H5N1 flu is still around.

So, what do we do? Do we want the government to surrender, ignore their rules, ignore international standards and move on? Do we want a response that’s probably no longer necessary? Is there even an acceptable middle ground?

What would I like to see done?

I have no power in this regard (that’s probably a good thing most of the time) but I’d love to see this response:

• Test all of the birds (at the farm’s expense)
• If they are all negative, and they can be rehomed, seize the group and rehome them. This farm has clearly shown it should never be allowed to raise livestock.
• Fine the farm substantially (again) to make it clear to others that they can’t act this way.

Dr. Oz has offered to take the birds, so I say test them and let the American’s figure out how they want to import birds from a quarantined flock and deal with them. That could be entertaining.  The farm declined the offer earlier, saying they want to keep the birds in Canada (which might just mean they don’t want to give the birds away for free, as there’s no profit in that).

I’d also review the response to H5N1 flu to see where we can improve (and internationally, discussions to re-classify ostriches as non-poultry might help). There are potential ways to bring in non-culling options for special populations, but only with proper and usually intensive infection control measures, as this is still a very serious virus that is a major threat to human and animal health.

The stories change regularly on this ostrich farm, but one thing they talk about a lot is the massive research value of these birds, and that they are part of a study of some sort that involved producing anti-SARS-CoV-2 antibodies. That’s interesting, but I doubt there’s any true value here. I’ve seen no publications, abstracts or other research outputs from the Japanese lab with which they have reportedly been working to suggest these birds have been useful or that they harbour anything unique or critical. I’m not saying not to study them, but we can inject lots of ostriches or other species with SARS-CoV-2 antigens (vaccination) and harvest antibodies. I’ve not seen any independent experts suggest the research value of these birds is anything special, so that aspect should be removed from any discussion.

In response to the recent verdict, the farm has once again appealed to the public to come to the farm. To do what? Physically prevent CFIA personnel from entering? Get more attention? Have one last party (or fundraiser)? Regardless, it’s one more example of a lack of respect for the law and due process, and shows to me that they shouldn’t be allowed to keep livestock. I’m all for exploring options to avoid culling the birds, but not to keep them in the hands of this group.