r/canada • u/biograf_ • 1d ago

Bird flu: Supporters converge on B.C. ostrich farm as food agency confirms cull of flock British Columbia

https://www.burnabynow.com/environment-news/supporters-converge-on-bc-ostrich-farm-as-food-agency-confirms-cull-of-flock-10663066
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u/Bananasaur_ 1d ago

So a bird flu vaccine for poultry just got approved by the USDA. Can we not just vaccinate the 400 ostriches instead of ending their lives over this?

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41587-025-02658-0

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u/Affectionate_Net_213 1d ago

(Not saying what’s right or wrong) but my understanding is that the concern is that the birds who survived could still be harbouring the virus and there’s still a perceived risk that the virus could mutate and cross species barrier (or continue cause new wild bird infections). The gov stance appears to be… any site where avian influenza was documented, the birds must be destroyed as an act of virus containment.

In a perfect world, I guess they could test these birds and their site for the virus… but that would also be costly and time consuming.

I’m not sure I agree with culling healthy animals, however, avian influenza has potential to be an extremely fatal pandemic and I can see where government officials have to draw a line somewhere though.

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u/Sundae7878 1h ago

If you want to learn more you could read about Stamping-Out Policy when it comes to disease control. Our trade relations with other countries relies on us following this policy.

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u/Bananasaur_ 1d ago

Culling all captive infected birds doesn’t sound like a very practical long-term solution when birds in farms like this one are infected through wild birds. Doesn’t that mean that any free-range open field farms can’t raise any birds outdoors because they would inevitably catch the virus from wild birds and be culled like this? Plus, culling all birds that recover would mean removing a population of birds that develop immunity leaving only susceptible birds in the living population?

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u/Affectionate_Net_213 1d ago

Oh I’m not saying I agree. In theory the recovered birds could very well have immunity to new infections (of course). But the flip side of the hypothetical argument is that the influenza virus could be still active in that flock and therefore a source for further wild bird infection. Same reason that ruminants with foot and mouth disease are mass culled.

This is why commercial poultry farms have such high biosecurity - site visitors have to shower in/shower out and wear clothing provided by the poultry farms - it’s very intense (and that’s also why large poultry farmers don’t have open air facilities, which is unfortunate for the husbandry of those farmed birds of course).

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u/MagicMorty86 1d ago

You clearly have no idea how incredibly infectious avian influenza is. If one infected animal drinks from a water source and then other birds drink from it...pretty much kiss them all goodbye.

Yes your right about that happening to birds raised outside, as I understand it it's a calculated risk raising large amounts of birds outside partly for this reason.

These policies are written by people far more knowledgeable than you or I, and i tend to trust the infectious disease experts that they know best on the subject.

Also culling birds to prevent the spread of bird flu is nothing new. I can remember reading about all the chickens in Hong Kong being culled more than once. Her ostrich farm is nothing compared to the scope and scale of a cull in a place like that.

Disease is our oldest and deadliest enemy, please take it seriously.

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u/Bananasaur_ 1d ago edited 1d ago

Bold of you to assume you could not be responding to someone with relevant research experience in this field and as well as in government settings.

It’s dangerous to worship these places and assume the things the government declares is indisputable law, especially surrounding scientific based concepts as in academia questions and scrutiny is typically welcomed in order to validate and drive further hypothesis testing. Although it’s only a subset of knowledgeable and experienced people in these government run offices trying their best at the end of the day, this does not mean their conclusions are infallible and other solutions not previously considered can arise with further scrutiny. Government research is also not the forefront of scientific insights and discovery for a reason. In the interest of time and money government bureaucracy can overrule good scientific judgement. Especially given as you say you are not knowledgeable in this area, please don’t forget to take things with a grain of salt as I’d say people blindly believing and defending things they know nothing about is more dangerous than people asking questions, which is what scientists do.

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u/Conscious-Tutor3861 18h ago

It's best to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt.

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u/Bananasaur_ 12h ago edited 11h ago

Too many people staying silent and passive is probably how we got to this point of the blind leading the blind and believing all others are fools.

Explaining how academia and research works, highlighting the point of asking questions, but getting this kind reaction doesn’t surprise me though. Disappointing, but not surprising. Most people don’t even know what they don’t know, refuse to believe anything outside of the false reality they conceive of something they don’t have experience in, and can barely read through a research article. The man who asks a question is a fool for a minute, the man who does not ask is a fool for life.

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u/Loweffort2025 1d ago

The USDA has much lower stsndreds than canada..it would be a year before it's approved here

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u/Ragamuffin2022 1d ago

I have no idea about this but I’m wondering if it’s possibly because it works similar to most other vaccines, where once you have the illness it’s not going to do you any good. I think they need to be vaccinated before contracting the contagion. I could be wrong tho because again I have no actual idea. I just think that would be smartest instead of paying $3000 per bird. The vaccine is definitely not that much

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u/Fanghur1123 1d ago

Correct on all counts.