U.S. billionaire backs B.C. ostrich farm as it fights to appeal avian flu cull order

Hundreds of ostriches in B.C. that are staring down a government death sentence now have a powerful ally. Judy Trinh explains.

An American billionaire says he will help bankroll a B.C. ostrich farm’s legal battle to overturn an order by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency to cull nearly 400 birds after the highly pathogenic H5N1 virus was detected in the herd last December.

The owners of Universal Ostrich Farm (UOF) in Edgewood are currently waiting to see if the Federal Court of Appeal will strike down a decision by a lower court to uphold CFIA’s order.

In court documents, the owners say their ostriches deserve to be saved because they are genetically rare and valuable to scientific research.

The farm has signed a contract with Dr. Yasuhiro Tsukamoto, president of Kyoto Prefectural University in Japan.

UOF says it has allowed its ostriches to be injected with COVID-19 antigens, so that antibodies can be extracted from the eggs they lay.

This research, UOF argues, can be transferred to the study of avian flu.

In an affidavit, David Bilinski, one of two UOF business partners, claims that their antibody research could bring millions of dollars annually in financial returns over the next several years. Bilinski says the $3,000 compensation per ostrich the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is offering will not offset the costs of culling the flock which will devastate his business “beyond recovery.”

If the destruction of the birds goes ahead, Bilinski said that UOF would be on the hook for $620,000 worth of antigens which has been provided by its research partner in Japan.

If they lose their appeal, the owners say they will try to take their fight to the Supreme Court of Canada.

In the eight months since avian flu was detected in dead ostriches, the owners have been actively crowdfunding to pay for their court and operational costs.

“We’re more than probably about a half a million dollars into legal fees, and this is going to be a financial burden that our family will carry forward for over years if we can’t pay that off,” said Katie Pasitney, the daughter of farm co-owner Karen Espersen.

John Catsimatidis, the CEO of Red Apple Group, an American real estate and aviation company, said he’s willing to help fund that fight.

“I will find out what is necessary, and I will lobby some of my friends to write a cheque,” said Catsimatidis in a zoom interview with CTV News from his New York office.

‘Facing slaughter like chickens’

The Republican businessman who also hosts a nationally syndicated talk radio show says he’s “horrified” that the “iconic” and “ancient” ostriches are going to be “slaughtered like a bunch of chickens.”

The CFIA considers ostriches to be part of domestic poultry. On its website, the agency states that all avian influenza viruses, particularly H5 and H7 viruses, have the potential to infect mammals including humans, and that it “will order the timely depopulation of domestic birds on infected premises.”

The culling of infected and exposed birds is an internationally accepted strategy supported by the World Organization for Animal Health (WOAH) to control avian flu outbreaks.

Last November, a B.C. teenager was infected with bird flu and spent several weeks in intensive care. In the last 14 months, more than 70 people in the United States have been diagnosed with H5N1. Most of the people being infected are poultry or dairy farm workers.

Plea for help to stop government overreach

Catsimatidis first became aware of the plight of UOF in February, after getting an email plea from the farm’s spokesperson, Katie Pasitney, to help save hundreds of surviving birds from “overreach from the government of Canada.”

In the email dated Feb. 11, and provided to CTV National News, Pasitney wrote that the herd was part of an antibody program in Canada, the U.S. and Japan.

“They (CFIA) want all our research and science that is ready to be used with antibodies destroyed. We have been working with top scientists and our antibodies have been able to even neutralize COVID,” Pasitney claimed in her message to Catsimatidis.

That motivated the billionaire to start talking about the farm’s fight on his talk radio show and to write a letter to Prime Minister Mark Carney urging him to intervene and to allow the ostriches to be tested for H5N1 before initiating a “mass slaughter.”

Although 69 ostriches died in the outbreak, Pasitney said the surviving birds are healthy, but that CFIA forbids them from conducting independent tests to prove they are no longer shedding the virus. Pasitney says CFIA inspectors have told her she faces 6 months in jail, and fines of up to $200,000 for each bird that is tested.

Catsimatidis says the Canadian policy is cruel and lacks common sense.

“All we want is for somebody to have a heart to say we’re going to pardon these animals… these beautiful iconic animals have antibodies and could save lives. Why can’t we at least test them to make sure.”

Friends in high places

Catsimatidis said he also contacted his friends in U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration, and persuaded U.S. Secretary of Health Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and Dr. Mehmet Oz, head of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid to put more pressure on the CFIA.

Oz has offered to provide sanctuary for the ostriches at his Florida ranch, while Kennedy has written directly to federal Agriculture Minister Heath MacDonald to urge him to suspend any planned culling of the flock so joint research between Canada and the U.S. can be pursued.

Kennedy says such collaboration would be a “unique research opportunity,” and notes that the “remaining birds in the flock have survived more than 170 days after H5N1 infection without symptoms or further documented transmission since the initial detection.”

Kennedy also says in his letter that “the destruction of entire flocks, without up-to-date testing and evaluation can have significant consequences, including the loss of valuable genetic stock that may help explain risk factors for H5N1 mortality.”

Weaponization of legal system

Nearly eight months have passed since the outbreak, but University of Saskatchewan virologist Angela Rasmussen believes that a cull is still justifiable. She warns that it’s possible “that there may be virus still spreading among the birds,” even if they appear healthy.

Scott Weese the chief of infection control at the Ontario Veterinary College at Guelph University, says the CFIA is in a “tough spot” and needs to avoid a situation where people can “weaponize the legal system.”

“If anyone can just start appealing, there’s no way to contain disease when culling is required,” Weese said in an email response to CTV News.

The veterinarian internal medicine specialist said his ideal solution involves CFIA testing each ostrich and billing UOF for the expense. If the entire flock is virus free, euthanasia can be avoided, but the birds should still be seized and placed in a different home.

“That makes it clear you can’t just stall and get what you want and takes away the financial incentive to act like this,” Weese wrote.

Questionable scientific value

Both Weese and Rasmussen are skeptical of the value of the research that is being conducted at the Edgewood farm because of an apparent lack of scientific rigor.

“This is a situation where these birds have really been out in nature. Their pens are outdoors. They’ve been exposed to a lot of different people. I would think that the scientific value of anything that we could find from them would be somewhat limited just because we don’t fully know (the birds’) history.”

In a memorandum of fact submitted during the appeal, federal government lawyers argued that UOF did not provide sufficient proof to show its herd had genetic value and should be spared from a cull.

The UOF did submit a presentation on ostrich antibodies, a business plan and agreements, a proposal for an avian flu antibody research project and media articles. But Crown lawyers noted the documentation was “based on speculative and non-peer reviewed research and information.”