Do the Ostriches Have to Die?

From the beginning, the Canadian Food Inspection Agency’s relationship with Universal Ostrich Farms was tense. An anonymous call led inspectors to the farm in December, where they found several dead ostriches that had been sickened by H5N1, a type of avian influenza breaking out in several countries.

When the farm's owners were told the entire 400-strong flock had to be killed to contain the illness, they called for help to resist the order.

And when CFIA investigators arrived at the property in Edgewood, about 100 kilometres southeast of Vernon, in January — suited up in white haz-mat suits and masks — they were met by a group supporting the farmers and quickly retreated, returning the next day with RCMP officers.

After a Federal Court decision affirmed the CFIA’s authority to order the cull earlier this month, the farm and its supporters are vowing to resist the slaughter order. A group of people are occupying the farm in the hopes of protecting the ostriches.

The family that owns the farm are vocal supporters of the “convoy” movement that mobilized in 2022 to protest against COVID-19 restrictions. Some of their supporters also took part in the Ottawa convoy protest in 2022.

The ostrich farm’s saga includes issues of animal welfare, disease control and distrust of science and government authority.

At the same time, the farm’s participation in research into producing protective antibodies has drawn criticism from people who oppose vaccines and do not believe in the existence of H5N1, an illness that has caused severe illness and sometimes death in humans.

Politicians from across the political spectrum have now spoken up in support of Universal Ostrich. B.C. Premier David Eby called for more flexibility from the CFIA, while Conservative MP Scott Anderson and Independent MLA Jordan Kealy have both visited the farm.

Let’s take a closer look at what experts say about ostriches, antibodies and controlling an avian flu outbreak.

What is avian flu?

Avian influenza is common in wild birds and doesn’t usually cause problems in wildlife like ducks and geese. That virus is known as low pathogenic avian influenza.

But when farmed chickens living in crowded barns get sick with avian flu, the virus can develop into variants that have a high rate of mortality. That type of avian influenza is known as high pathogenic avian influenza, or HPIA. It causes a very high mortality rate in chickens and can act unpredictably when other animals or humans contract the virus.

Countries around the world are currently dealing with an outbreak of the subtype H5N1, which has also infected cats, cows and some people.

H5N1 has also devastated wild animals in Antarctica, killing over 500,000 seabirds and over 20,000 sea lions. Researchers have been alarmed to see the virus jump from birds to mammals such as seals, and then spread between marine mammals.

Although relatively few people have been infected with H5N1, those who do get sick can become very ill. The fatality rate for humans is 52 per cent, although that number may be an overestimate because many infections could be going undetected or unreported.

The United States recorded its first death caused by H5N1 in January. In Metro Vancouver, a 13-year-old girl became critically ill after coming down with H5N1 in the fall of 2024. While most people who get H5N1 contract it after handling or coming into contact with infected birds, doctors were not able to determine how the teenage girl became infected.

Researchers have found that the fatal case in the United States and the case that sickened the teenager in B.C. were the same version of the virus and that the virus had undergone mutations that increased its ability to bind to the respiratory tract and increase replication.

“It’s difficult for this virus to infect humans, but on occasion when it does infect humans, the consequences can be extreme — it can cause death,” said Jan Hajek, an infectious disease doctor based in Vancouver who is interested in animal welfare and how illnesses spread from animals to humans.

“There’s a legitimate concern that this [H5N1] virus, or another avian flu virus, or swine flu — that these viruses are probably going to be the cause of the next pandemic.”

Why does CFIA order infected flocks to be killed?

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency requires that veterinarians and farmers report any outbreaks of avian flu to the agency. Farms are supposed to separate affected animals and prevent visitors from coming into contact with their livestock. For poultry, the CFIA also follows a “stamping out” policy that involves “humanely destroying” affected flocks.

Hajek said the “stamping out” policy makes more sense for chickens. Chickens raised for meat are typically slaughtered around six weeks of age, and H5N1-infected chickens have a very high mortality rate — between 90 and 100 per cent, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

There’s a higher risk for workers to be infected and for avian influenza to spread outside of the farm.

“It's a virus that's circulating benignly as low pathogenic influenza in the environment, enters a commercial poultry farm, where it replicates, develops highly pathogenic traits and then can spread to other farms and can spill over into wildlife, causing these kinds of more global pandemic risks,” Hajek said.

Ostriches, with their much longer lifespans, are classified as poultry and the CFIA applies the same policy to both ostriches and chickens.

Hajek said there is a case to be made that the cull rules that are in place for chickens should not be applied to ostriches, or should be considered on a case-by-case basis.

While no cases of avian flu have been found in Canadian cattle, herds in the United States have been affected and the policy for cattle does not involve killing entire herds. Cattle have a much lower death rate from the virus: just two per cent of infected cows die, according to the American Veterinary Medical Association.

However, Hajek said, the high number of ostriches that died in the December outbreak — 69 out of 450 birds — shows that the ostriches became very sick and 15 per cent of the flock was lost, even if it wasn’t as high as the death rate on a chicken farm experiencing an outbreak.

Does a vaccine exist for H5N1?

Yes, vaccines exist for both humans and animals for H5N1. In response to the Metro Vancouver case of H5N1, B.C. provincial health officer Dr. Bonnie Henry told media on Nov. 12 that the province isn’t yet vaccinating people for H5N1 because few cases have been reported.

While some countries vaccinate farm animals for H5N1, Canada and the United States don’t currently have a vaccination program for livestock. In Canada, a working group has been studying whether to start a vaccination program since June 2023.

This farm says it’s supporting cutting-edge research. What’s that about?

Universal Ostrich has promoted its participation in research with Yasuhiro Tsukamoto, a veterinary professor and president of Kyoto Prefectural University. Tsukamoto did not respond to The Tyee’s request for comment, but in a previous interview with the Canadian Press, he confirmed he had been working with Universal Ostrich, extracting COVID-19 antibodies from ostrich eggs to research whether those antibodies can prevent infectious diseases like COVID and avian influenza.

Hajek explained how using ostriches and their eggs to produce antibodies works. The ostriches are vaccinated against COVID-19 or other viruses to produce an immune response. Then, after the vaccinated ostrich lays an egg, the antibodies the ostrich has produced in response to being vaccinated for various illnesses are extracted from it.

Universal Ostrich has avoided using the word “vaccination” in describing the process, instead using the terms “antigen” and “inoculation” in a press release responding to concerns from people who oppose vaccines. But Hajek said it’s essentially the same process and is proof that vaccines work.

Antibodies are different from vaccines, but they are useful in quickly fighting illnesses, Hajek said. Antibodies provide passive immunity, while vaccinations provide active immunity.

“If you have active immunity against something, either from a vaccine or from surviving an infection, then you have two main lines: you have your antibodies, but you also have a lot of cells that are protective,” Hajek said.

“And the cell immunity includes all kinds of cells that are manufacturing your antibodies and are actively working on killing the viruses and bacteria that can engulf them. That's the active immunity.”

In contrast, passive immunity — which is what antibodies can provide — is not as strong as active immunity, Hajek said.

“It's less strong than active immunity, but it's immediately available,” he said. “So if you don't have time to develop an immune response, or you don't have time to get vaccinated and develop your strong immune response to it, then you can get antibodies from someone else.”

In the Federal Court challenge, Universal Ostrich argued its birds were unique and that killing them would disrupt important scientific research. Katie Pasitney, a spokesperson for the farm, has suggested there may be an effort by pharmaceutical companies to suppress the farm’s antibody research.

Annelise Botes, a professor of biochemistry at Stellenbosch University in South Africa who studies diseases in ostriches, said antibodies “have been used for decades for a range of things, both in research and commercial applications.” For instance, a home pregnancy test uses antibodies.

She said antibodies harvested from birds have different characteristics from those of mammals that make them useful. And the advantage of using ostriches is their large eggs, which increase the amount of antibodies that can be collected.

Were the ostriches being sold for meat, and is that dangerous?

While Universal Ostrich advertises ostrich meat products on its website, the farm says it stopped producing and selling ostrich meat in 2020 and planned to change its business model to selling the ostrich antibodies.

Pasitney previously told The Tyee that the antibodies can also be put into “nutraceuticals” like lozenges. Hajek said it’s “relatively safe” to put antibodies into food. Or, as another company does, to use ostrich antibodies in a spray that it claims grows hair.

“These are the kinds of things you can market without having strong health claims,” he said.

The CFIA says that “avian influenza is not a food safety concern. There is no evidence to suggest that eating cooked poultry or eggs could transmit the virus to humans.”

Why is CFIA still planning to go ahead with the cull?

The farm and its supporters have argued that H5N1 has run through the flock and the remaining birds now likely have immunity to the illness. They are also asking for additional tests on the birds before the cull goes ahead.

But in a May 14 press release, the CFIA said the possibility of the virus continuing to exist in the ostriches, and possibly mutating, is too great a risk. The agency says this risk is particularly high for birds, like the ostriches, that are being raised in open pasture, where they can continue to be exposed to wild birds.

“Allowing a domestic poultry flock known to be exposed to HPAI [highly pathogenic avian influenza] to remain alive allows a potential source of the virus to persist. It would increase the possibility of reassortment or mutation, particularly with birds raised in open pasture where there is ongoing exposure to wildlife. This could also increase the human health risk,” the CFIA said.

Reassortment is when various influenza viruses mix inside the body, potentially creating new strains. Reassortment has played a role in creating viruses that have caused influenza pandemics.

The CFIA says the B.C. teenager who became critically ill shows just how risky H5N1 is.

Will Universal Ostrich be compensated for the lost birds?

Normally, ostrich farms would be compensated for a cull at $3,000 per bird. The CFIA says this amount is the market rate for an ostrich, but Universal Ostrich says it’s much higher: $7,500 for a male ostrich and $93,000 for an antibody-producing female bird.

However, if the farm does not carry out the CFIA-ordered cull, the agency says it will step in or will hire a contractor to destroy the animals. In that case, the CFIA might not pay all or any compensation.

In an emailed response to The Tyee, the CFIA says it knows culls can be emotionally distressing for farmers.

“CFIA veterinarians and inspectors work with poultry farmers to see that depopulation is completed humanely using internationally accepted methods,” it said. “We also provide guidance to producers throughout the process of depopulation, disposal, and cleaning and disinfection, so they can resume their operations as quickly as possible.”

*Story updated on May 23, 2025 at 10:15 p.m. to include additional information on avian flu variants.