RFK Jr offers to save Canadian ostriches with suspected bird flu and move them to Mehmet Oz's ranch in Florida [View all]

Source: The Guardian

RFK Jr offers to save Canadian ostriches with suspected bird flu and move them to US

Trump officials offer to move 300 birds to Mehmet Oz’s Florida ranch after Canada’s kill order over avian flu fears

Olivia Bowden in Toronto
Wed 28 May 2025 18.16 BST
Last modified on Wed 28 May 2025 22.19 BST

Senior officials in the Trump administration have intervened in attempt to save more than 300 ostriches on a farm in British Columbia which the Canadian government had ordered to be killed over fears the flock is infected with avian flu.

Robert F Kennedy Jr, the US health secretary, and Mehmet Oz, a physician and former TV host appointed by Trump as the director of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid, have offered to move the birds to Oz’s ranch in Florida – despite the kill order imposed by Canadian health authorities.

Universal Ostrich, a farm in Edgewood, BC, was ordered to kill all its birds after authorities received an anonymous tip in December 2024 that some were dying. Samples collected from two birds found they tested positive for H5N1, a strain of bird flu.

The farm’s owners sued over the order, but the Canadian federal government argued they were following a “stamping out” policy in order to keep avian flu at bay, in line with advice from the World Health Organization.

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Read more: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/may/28/rfk-jr-oz-canadian-ostriches-avian-flu