United States Health & Human Services Secretary Robert F Kennedy Jr has called on Ottawa to step in and save 400 ostriches at a family farm in British Columbia from a government-ordered cull.In a letter to Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) President Paul MacKinnon, Kennedy argued that while preventing the spread of H5N1 was important, slaughtering the entire flock was the wrong course of action. "Given that a proportion of these ostriches were infected with avian influenza last year, we believe there is significant value in studying this population, for several reasons," Kennedy wrote. .He argued that the controlled environment "enables longitudinal studies of the natural history status post H5N1 infection," and that as a result, the flock could offer "the potential to study both antibody levels and cellular immunity to help further our scientific understanding of the virus and the immune physiologic response," as well as "the important principle of antibody-dependent enhancement and possible therapeutics in the setting of prior infection.""While we understand the importance of preventing the spread of H5N1, we believe the decision to cull the entire flock of approximately 400 ostriches — made nearly six months after the initial positive test results — will not influence the current health status of the surviving birds," Kennedy explained. "Further, because avian influenza has been around for thousands of years and is endemic in wild bird populations in the United States and Canada, efforts to extirpate it by culling birds will be fruitless.".He added that as such, "unless we are willing to exterminate every wild bird in North America, we propose that our governments work together to devise more nuanced and thoughtful protocols-based upon the emerging scientific evidence for controlling outbreaks in domestic flocks."Kennedy went on to note that his department, the National Institutes of Health, and the Food and Drug Administration, would provide their "full support and assistance in conducting diagnostic testing and undertaking a long-term body of research on these ostriches, contingent on CFIA's approval and that of the farm owners.".The owners of Universal Ostrich Farm recently lost a court case that could have saved their birds, the judge siding with the CFIA in favour of carrying out the cull. .Feds to proceed with ostrich cull despite legal appeal .The federal agency confirmed on May 20 that it plans to "begin the humane depopulation and disposal of birds at the infected premises with veterinary oversight."
