Chuck

[cropgrower]

1.2 million pissed away yes , plus all the other costs , and that will be huge , their is far more to this , canada is under WHO now , big Pharma must be protected

[AlbertaFarmer5]

What's different with the ostriches?

In my opinion, the difference is that the bureaucrats and public health officials lost all credibility with their authoritarian bungling of covid and the vaccine.

I warned at the time that this loss of respect, trust and confidence would have dire consequences the next time there is an actual public health emergency.

You are now reaping what you sowed. What did you expect was going to happen?

[blackpowder]

Although I agree with you I wonder how much responsibility can be laid directly on the public themselves.
We are a lot dumber since becoming clickbait, no one even realizing they're in an echo chamber.
How do you fix that?

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Easiest way to avoid being in an echo chamber subject to every clickbait that comes along is to not cancel anyone who disagrees with you. To interact with them no matter how unpleasant.
However lopsided, this forum does provide an opportunity for both extremes to be exposed to the opposite views.

And credit to Chuck he comes into this rattlesnake nest everyday at great risk of challenging any of his preconceived notions. He could just as easily spend his mornings and the safe spaces of the CBC chat rooms.

[TSIPP]

The CFIA has been using culls in the entire livestock industry for decades to prevent trade disruptions, market loss, borders closing to exports and out of control animal disease.

But in this case of ostriches it's not a credible policy anymore?

What's different with the ostriches?

The only difference is the farmers summoned the wing nut anti government antivaxer types to get involved!

Commercial poultry farms know the drill and don't make a fuss because other poultry farms are at put at risk.

They will be compensated!

Maybe the billions of migratory birds that nobody controls, we are just sick and tired of government overreach…

[Blaithin]

People do not consider bird flu different than Covid and frequently default to “well the wild birds all have it”.

Also those bitter and cynical about the government are unwilling or unable to look past it being a government order.

As long as those thoughts are in their heads they will defend the ostriches.

You could say their heads are in the sand. They are unable to see more than the grit in front of their eyes.

[TSIPP]

Pretty sure bird flu and covid are different and I really doubt all the wild birds are sick with bird flu but it sounds like the remaining ostriches aren’t sick and the owners aren’t allowed testing the rest of the birds, seems strange, keep wiping out the healthy and maybe immune animals dose not sound scientific.

[Blaithin]

It’s not about immunity, it’s about evolution.

Ostriches appear to carry the “original” strain so to speak (as opposed to the evolved strain that infects cows in the states) and they appear to do it mostly asymptomatically.

The biggest concern with H5N1 is its historically high mortality in people which is why officials around the world do not want people working in close proximity with animals that have the virus without taking necessary precautions. Farmers working in close contact with a flock of ostriches that have the virus, even if they show no symptoms, is an open door for the virus to jump to people. If it’s the wrong strain of the virus it could be quite bad.

It would be a great Hollywood story of unrealistic proportions to have a pandemic movie where mortalities above 50% occur due to an outbreak from ground zero at an ostrich farm in bum **** British Columbia, but those unrealistic storylines aren’t out of reach considering the history of H5N1 in the last 20-25 years.

Government overreach? Sure. Over reaction? Probably. Chance of worst case scenario happening? Slim.

But on the flip side

400 ostriches and one farm being a catalyst to an H5N1 outbreak that’s mutated to spread person to person and keeps its high mortality?

They always thought pigs would be the vector. The ostriches aren’t going to let that one go.

[TSIPP]

Even the cops aren’t wearing personal protective equipment, doesn’t look like anyone is worried about bird flu at the ostrich ranch, I don’t have a clue why anyone would want 400 of those ugly birds but that’s neither here or there, I don’t have wonder who’s paying the bills, ostrich ranching seems like a poor business.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

Blaithin, in your safety conscious industry, I'm sure you are familiar with the risk matrix.
Where you weigh the probability versus the consequences of an event.
High probability and low consequences, little or no action required. Low probability but high consequences, gets the same ranking.

Your daily toolbox meeting doesn't have to include mitigation measures for Yellowstone erupting or an asteroid strike or terrorist attack. Even though the consequences of those would be catastrophic.

The argument you make in favor of eradicating the birds because of extremely low probabilities of very high consequences, seems to fit into the same category.

Society cannot possibly remove all risks. We would be completely paralyzed if we even attempted to do so.

As I have said before, collectively we are incompetent at analyzing relative risk. Just look at the out of proportion response made to terrorist attacks in the US which killed 3,000 people. While we do absolutely nothing to prevent the diabetes epidemic which kills millions.