Edgewood ostrich farmers hold out hope as CFIA cull order date looms

Photo: Canadian Press

Ostrich farmers and animal justice advocates are voicing concerns following a Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s (CFIA) decision to cull a herd of 400 ostriches after an avian flu outbreak in the West Kootenay.

The federal agency issued Universal Ostrich Farms Inc., located in Edgewood, a notice on Dec. 31 instructing their ostriches to be destroyed and disposed of by Feb.1.

Farmers are holding on to hope that CFIA will reverse the decision before the deadline.

Camille Labchuk, a lawyer and executive director at Animal Justice said that avian flu outbreaks are a manifestation of a broken system.

"Yet it’s the individual birds who pay the ultimate price,” said Labchuk.

Katie Pasitney whose mother Karen Espersen co-owns the farm said about 10 per cent of the ostriches have died since the outbreak began

Espersen, who has been in the ostrich business since 1991, pivoted from selling meat three years ago to focus on scientific research. She founded a bioscience company to commercialize ostrich antibodies.

"Some of the ostriches on their farm are over 30 years old," said Pasitney. "It's the very young ones that mainly seem to be affected by the virus."

She explained that the disease spread after a flock of wild ducks landed nearby. Pasitney said the CFIA only tested two ostriches that died early in the outbreak that started in December. The farm has requested for more testing to be done, and are considering bringing in third party inspectors.

Pasitney said the ostriches are on a strict quarantine protocol, pose no flight risk, and live in a remote area that’s not in the vicinity of commercial poultry farms, with the closest city an hour and a half away.

She explained that the only people who interact with the animals are the farm co-owners, and that they disinfect the ostriches' feeding dishes, step into foot baths at every barn entrance and sanitize the truck used to feed animals, which is no longer driven into town.

“We would be culling 300 plus absolutely healthy animals,”she continued. "The majority of the ostriches are healthy and showing resilience to the illness."

Dr. Scott Weese—a infectious disease veterinarian and professor at the University of Guelph,— said mass culls may not be the most effective approach, given that H5N1 influenza is now endemic.

"The question is, do we need to do that? Are there alternatives that can be done that can achieve the same thing?”

Weese suggested that to combat the growing threat of bird flu, the root causes of disease in industrial farming must be addressed in order to protect both animal and human health. Adding that culling is used as an “end tool” to stop potential transmission.

He said there are nuances that need to be considered, such as if the spread is containable and if culling will eradicate the disease. Weese added that the avian flu is already widespread in Canada.

“We're not eradicating H5N1 by culling these ostriches because it's all over the place. And we're probably not going to drop the broader risk overall very much because there's so much out there."

'Weese, who has not visited the farm, said broadly that such decisions come down to evaluating the risk in the grand scheme. Suggesting that infection control inspectors are going to err on the side of eliminating risk while farmers will want to save animals.'

An Alberta Health Services board member, who became aware of the B.C. farm ten years ago when it started looking into studying the ostriches' immune systems, said the CFIA could monitor the day-to-day operations of the farm if that's of concern.

Dr. Lyle Oberg had previously written to the CFIA in support of the farm.

“You've got an opportunity. You've got a flock that was infected by ducks. You've got a flock where you know, I think the last number I heard is that 75 or 85 per cent of them are surviving. Maybe you should take a look at this and ask yourselves why are they surviving? This is a very important health item,” said Oberg.

According to CFIA surveillance posted online, there are 3,459 positive wildlife cases in the country, and about 66 premises with infected domestic birds.

With files from The Canadian Press.