Eight months after federal officials destroyed more than 300 ostriches at Universal Ostrich Farms in Edgewood, British Columbia, the property remains under quarantine, with owners saying they still have no clear timeline for when they’ll be allowed to reopen.
Katie Pasitney, daughter of farm co-owner Karen Espersen, says the Canadian Food Inspection Agency has prevented the family from cleaning up the property while citing an ongoing “fallow period,” intended to allow any remaining H5N1 virus in the environment to naturally become inactive, as the reason the quarantine remains in place.
‘They continue down this anti-science avenue, which is destroying the credibility of the CFIA internationally.’
No reprieve
The ongoing restrictions come months after the CFIA ordered the destruction of the farm’s ostriches following an outbreak of H5N1 avian influenza.
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