RFK Jr. asks Canadian regulator to reconsider ostrich cull at B.C. farm
Global News
U.S. health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is urging Canada to halt a planned ostrich cull in B.C., calling for a joint study of the birds’ immune response to avian flu.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has written a letter to the president of the Canadian Food Inspection Agency asking that ostriches at a B.C. farm be spared from a planned cull.
Kennedy, the U.S. secretary for health and human services, posted a letter on social media dated Friday and addressed to Paul MacKinnon, saying there would be “significant value” in studying the ostriches’ immune response to avian flu.
The secretary, who says he spoke with MacKinnon on Thursday about the cull, thanked the Canadian agency for what he said was an openness to discussing a collaboration on a long-term study of the roughly 400 birds at Universal Ostrich Farm in Edgewood, B.C.
The letter is co-signed by the heads of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration and National Institutes of Health, who Kennedy said also took part in the conversation with MacKinnon.
“It’s our hope that this collaboration will help us understand how to better protect human and animal populations and perhaps lead to the development of new vaccines and therapeutics,” Kennedy said in the social media post.
“We at HHS are excited about this opportunity for co-operation among our governments in a promising scientific partnership.”
The letter says the situation requires further evaluation.
“We are fully committed to supporting CFIA and Canadian farmers in safeguarding both public health and animal welfare and to further studying this important and unique flock for scientific advancement,” it reads.
