Follow the Bird Flu Ostrich Antibody Money

You can't tap that IgY gold without breaking some giant eggs

A while back, I wrote about the BC ostrich farmers who are engaging in a clownish display of civil disobedience to defend their H5N1-infected flock from a Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) depopulation order. The federal court of appeals has now condemned the ostriches to humane euthanasia.

I’ve been asked quite a lot about whether these ostriches should be culled. Tonight I discussed it on CBC live with Ian Hanomansing. Today US CMS Administrator Mehmet Oz and his billionaire grocery tycoon buddy John Catsimatidis gave a press conference claiming the ostriches are full of wonderful immunological secrets just waiting to be unlocked, so they should be exported to Oz’s Florida estate. The owners have claimed that the ostriches are valuable scientific research animals and so should be granted a pardon. I wondered if that was true. I thought I had followed the ostrich hole to its bottom, but it turns out it goes ever deeper.

A commenter passed along links to a Canadian legal blog that helpfully compiled key court documents, including an affidavit from Universal Ostrich Farms (UOF) owner Dave Bilinski to the federal court of appeals that decided the ostriches’ fate. Bilinski describes UOF’s journey from selling breeder ostriches, processing ostrich meat and oil, producing beauty products, and agritourism to an antibody production company. The affidavit also provided more information about the type of scientific research that was supposedly being conducted at UOF once they pivoted to becoming an antibody manufacturer.

I can see why the CFIA concluded that UOF was not suitable for controlled research activities or trials. It’s hard to believe that, prior to attracting a community of itinerant anti-vax “medical freedom” yokels squatting in the middle of a bird flu quarantine zone, this rural ostrich farm was a thriving biological therapeutics manufacturer. Neighbors accused UOF of leaving flu-infected ostrich carcasses for crows to pick at and burying animals on their property next to the creek where hate preacher Artur Pawlowski was baptizing new converts to the flock at Ostrichpalooza back in July. Their biosecurity practices are so dismal that the humans at UOF claim to have tested positive for antibodies to the virus, meaning they also contracted it. They have continued to raise funds throughout. The situation remains an appalling example of defying public health laws for personal gain.

Universal Ostrich Pharm

UOF was founded in 1999 by Karen Espersen to selectively breed larger ostriches, presumably because they produced larger yields of meat and oil. Bilinski, who had himself founded an ostrich farm in 1993, sold ostriches to Espersen and joined UOF in 2010. In March 2020, Espersen and Bilinski reviewed a paper from Yasuhiro Tsukamoto, an immunologist specializing in ostrich antibodies. This paper describes how IgY antibodies (bird antibodies) were extracted from ostrich eggs after the ostriches were immunized against H5N1 avian influenza virus. These antibodies neutralized virus in cell culture, prevented chicken embryos from dying after infection in ovo, and protected chicks from a lethal challenge with a highly pathogenic H5N1 isolate from Indonesia.

Ostrich antibodies protect chicks against H5N1, although it’s unclear if they performed replicate experiments. The lack of error bars suggests they didn’t. (From Adachi et al, Molecular Medicine, 2008, Appendix B of Bilinski’s affidavit)

Based on this paper, Espersen and Bilinski decided to go all in on ostrich egg antibody production. The idea was that they would immunize their ostriches against viruses or other targets to harvest antibodies that they could then market as supplements or medicines.

By May 2020, they had a letter of intent from a BC company called Breathe Medical Manufacturing to exclusively buy anti-SARS-CoV-2 (COVID) antibodies from UOF in a deal worth $3,000,000. The plan was to impregnate Breathe Medical masks with ostrich antibodies to block SARS-CoV-2 transmission. I can see why these people are fans of mass infection proponents like US Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr, because Breathe Medical had further plans to buy enough ostrich antibodies for 10,000,000 masks per month for 5 years. If you plan on sustaining that demand for 5 years, you must be expecting a really long pandemic!

Breathe Medical apparently didn’t factor that into their business plan, since in early 2021, right when vaccines were beginning to be rolled out in Canada, they declared bankruptcy. By December 2020, UOF had redirected their entire business to ostrich egg antibody production, so this must have been inconvenient. To remain viable as an antibody company, they had to come up with something new. So they decided to start making “vaccines” that are actually antibodies.

Giving antibodies to people to prevent an infection is a form of passive immunization, but it is not really a vaccine. Vaccines actually stimulate your immune system to make its own antibodies and develop long-lasting immune memory, while passive immunization only lasts as long as the antibodies do. Also, anti-vaxxers love to equate passive immunization with vaccination.

So Espersen and Bilinski founded a company called Struthio Bio Sciences in 2022 (the scientific name for ostriches is Struthio camelus) and made a deal with a bird antibody contract research organization called Immune Bio Solutions to produce an unspecified antigen (SARS-CoV-2 spike) for immunizing the ostriches. It’s very unclear whether that was ever produced, since the document that Bilinski describes as an “invoice for the first production batch” was actually an email chain of Bilinski and Espersen negotiating royalties with an Immune Bio Solutions executive in 2022. In this exchange, the Immune Bio Solutions executive notes that by 2022, they had already invested $80,000 in antigen production with little to show for it and pointed out the lack of novelty or intellectual property value in expressing spike protein for immunization. Perhaps UOF did at least immunize their ostriches for antibody production, although there is no evidence that any antibodies were harvested or tested for COVID.

Sorry, Immune Bio Solutions, but you aren’t getting your $80K back

By 2023, Struthio had pivoted to an even bigger and more lucrative market: weight loss. Bilinski provided Struthio’s business plan and PowerPoint pitch deck to prove that UOF was fully committed to playing their part in the struthian antibody revolution, even if it meant heavily exaggerating the raw immunological power of ostrich IgY.

I’m gonna need to see some data to support this claim that ostrich IgY is better at antibodying than other avian antibodies or mammalian IgG

They showed data (presumably generated by Tsukamoto, since it involved laboratory rodents) on ostrich antibodies against several pancreatic and intestinal digestive enzymes involved in breaking down fats and sugars. Mice that were fed a high-fat diet ad libitum (meaning they can eat as much as they want, when they want) and were treated with antibodies didn’t gain weight, while untreated mice did. They called this antibody cocktail OstriTrim.

From Exhibit E of Bilinski’s affidavit

These experiments were obviously not performed by UOF. Those are clearly BALB/c mice (an inbred albino strain that is frequently used in experimental research). CFIA did not note any BALB/c mouse colonies along with the wild ducks, weasels, and other assorted animals frequenting the UOF quarantine zone. They also claimed to have done a 7-person uncontrolled clinical trial of OstriTrim as a dietary supplement, which also was not obviously carried out at UOF. They did some preliminary testing on other OstriProducts, as well.

I have questions about how this halitosis meter works, what it measures, and how this is validated. This is still an incredible slide and I’m sad that OstriDogBreath wasn’t part of the long-term Struthio strategy

Struthio’s business plan rested on reorganizing the company after merging with Ostrich Pharma KK, a company founded by Tsukamoto. As part of this merger, they would pay Tsukamoto 500 million yen (about $4.5M CAD/$3.5M USD). Struthio’s name would change to Ostrich Pharma USA and they would dominate the market with a host of OstriSupplements for everything from hair regrowth to cholera prevention to irritable bowel syndrome, with billions (!!!) in projected revenue.

All of the R&D required to develop the full product line of OstriSupplements requires scientific expertise, resources, and facilities that UOF clearly did not have. So if this scientific research wasn’t occurring at UOF, what was their role? Calling them “collaborators” is a generous way to describe egg suppliers. The plan called for UOF to harvest eggs from immunized ostriches and send the yolks to wherever the antibodies will be purified. They immunize the ostriches but don’t design the antigen used for the vaccine or carry out testing to see if it worked. They keep the ostriches alive and laying eggs and that’s about it.

This is even more clear when you look at the licensing agreement between Struthio (which now includes Tsukamoto as a co-CEO) and UOF. Struthio will provide the antigens for immunizing the ostriches and will pay $500 a yolk with an 18-month advance payment. UOF will immunize ostriches for whatever (give them an injection), keep the laying hens healthy, keep up with Struthio’s egg demands, and deliver yolks to Struthio’s production facilities. There’s nothing about UOF participating in scientific research in any way except as a vendor.

It’s actually somewhat sad to see how poor UOF’s grasp of the concept of evidence is. CFIA actually told them exactly what they needed to provide to get an exemption: proof that the birds are a distinct epidemiological unit (they were isolated and had a lower risk of flu exposure) and proof that these birds have rare and valuable genetics. The former would be proven by CFIA inspections and the latter by breeding records, pedigrees, or genomic testing. Their biosecurity practices were a mess, they openly violated CFIA orders, and they did not provide any breeding records despite claiming to have developed their ostrich lines over 30 years.

Next time CFIA tells you exactly what to do to get an exemption for a legally mandated poultry cull, you should consider actually doing that

Without question, the CFIA-ordered cull would be catastrophic to UOF’s business. Bilinski notes that the merger has been put on hold pending the outcome of the appeal, so the court’s decision impacts UOF’s commercial viability as much as their ostriches’. However, there is really no scientific reason why you’d have to use these ostriches to make these antibodies. Any immunocompetent ostrich would do.

As for UOF’s current financial situation, Bilinski claimed to be on the hook for $620,000 worth of ostrich antigen from Tsukamoto. I have a lot of questions about the results of all these business deals they were engaged in, particularly considering Bilinski’s track record of ostrich farm management includes unrealistic business plans, three defaulted mortgages, foreclosures, and lying about the state of his ostrich businesses to investors. What happened to all the money from all these deals they were making? Where does Tsukamoto fit into all of this? Is he involved in the UOF’s business or not?

UOF has continued aggressively fundraising via the traveling circus currently on site at the farm. Catsimaditis has provided funding support. There is a website where they are soliciting donations and selling merch. You can buy a $70 ostrich saving hoodie. They have a GoFundMe that has raised more than $50,000. It makes me wonder where UOF’s OstriSupplement-related complaints end and a shameless cash grab begins.

About those tests

Espersen’s daughter Katie Pasitney serves as the de facto spokesperson for UOF and has been making the rounds on the Canadian right-wing extremist influencer media circuit. She told Western Standard in May that her family had tested positive for H5N1 antibodies. CFIA Deputy Chief Veterinary Officer Cathy Furness noted in her affidavit that Pasitney had made this claim to ostrich convoy fanboy and podcaster-in-chief Shadoe Davis, as well.

Serological tests (tests for antibodies) for flu are notoriously error-prone, because people have been exposed to so many subtypes of influenza viruses in their lives, both through infection and vaccination. H1N1 is a currently circulating seasonal flu strain, so most people have antibodies to N1, or neuraminidase (NA), a protein on the virus particle’s surface. Therefore, when doing serology for flu, it’s really important to address cross-reactivity lest you get false positives and therefore the type of test is really important. An ELISA (Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay) is the easiest because it is just pieces of H5N1 proteins on a plate that will bind any antibodies present in a serum sample, but also has the highest chance of cross-reactivity. Better tests are microneutralization assays (where you measure how many antibodies can neutralize the virus) or hemagglutination inhibition (HAI) assays (where you measure whether enough antibodies are present to bind H5, which normally causes red blood cells to clump up, that they block this clumping reaction). Both of these tests measure antibodies that bind the virus strongly enough to neutralize it. The problem is that both microneutralization and HAI assays require live virus to perform.

In Canada, H5N1 is classified as a Security Sensitive Biological Agent (SSBA) and it requires a security clearance under the Human Pathogens and Toxins Act (HPTA). It is a federal crime to handle an SSBA without HPTA clearance. From personal experience, it takes a long time to get a HPTA clearance and they do an extremely thorough background check, including on your history of abiding by laws and public health orders. Considering they are routinely protesting government pathogen regulation from a CFIA quarantine zone in violation of legally binding biosecurity orders, I suspect that nobody at UOF would get a HPTA clearance.

Getting an ear-nibbling from a flu-infected terror bird is a poor biosafety practice

In addition, H5N1 needs to be handled in enhanced containment level 3 (CL3) laboratories. These are very expensive to operate and maintain, require years of training to work in, and are heavily regulated by both CFIA and the Public Health Agency of Canada. I know this because I work in one. I have worked in high containment for more than a decade. I am acutely aware of the importance of both employing the most stringent biosafety practices and maintaining rigorous biosecurity at all times. When handling dangerous pathogens, you need to know what you are doing. UOF obviously does not have a containment lab or virology expertise, and based on their flagrant disregard for CFIA quarantine rules, I’d flee the country before allowing one of these separatist hayseeds anywhere near an infectious H5N1 culture. There is no way they were tested with a microneutralization or HAI assay.

So when Katie Pasitney says their family is immune because they have antibodies to H5N1, she’s either lying about being tested or got a test that is likely to produce a false positive result. She is also admitting that their biosecurity practices were so poor that their entire family was infected by the ostriches she claims are not infected. This is why this cull should proceed.

Why do the ostriches have to be culled?

There are three main reasons that I think the ostriches should be culled. The first reason is economic. Canada has agreed to the World Organization for Animal Health’s stamping out policy, which uses culling as the first line of defense against bird flu outbreaks to prevent spread to humans and other animals. This is both in the interest of public health and not exporting H5N1 to Canada’s international trading partners. In fact, Oz’s proposed export to his Floridian ostrich reserve would violate multiple laws and trade agreements in both Canada and the US. Because of this ostrich farm’s refusal to allow depopulation, several countries banned poultry imports and an export ban was placed on the entire province of British Columbia. For Canada to honor its trade agreements and alleviate the economic pressure on the BC poultry industry, the ostriches must be culled.

The scientific reason is that stamping out is a proven, evidence-based method for controlling bird flu outbreaks. There is no way to assess with certainty whether these ostriches are infected or have protective antibodies against H5N1. Ostriches don’t get very sick from H5N1, so you can’t tell if they are infected by looking at them. You have to test. Testing the ostriches might not detect persistently or cryptically infected animals, depending on how sensitive and extensive it is and how the birds are sampled. Testing the birds for antibodies requires a containment laboratory just as it does for human serology testing, since these ostriches likely have antibodies to other bird flu viruses they may have been exposed to (there are a lot of low-pathogenicity avian flu viruses circulating in bird populations). Even if antibodies are found in the birds, it doesn’t mean they are protective. In some studies, ostriches don’t get very sick when infected with HPAI viruses and don’t always have a robust antibody response. This means that even if these ostriches were infected, they might not be protected.

Oz isn’t much of a scientist if he is going to state that these birds are resistant to H5N1 infection with no virus testing or serology data. It’s pretty bold to claim that ostrich antibodies have “huge scientific value to the global community” with no evidence. They were naturally infected (and maybe still-infected) in an uncontrolled experiment that was characterized throughout by open rejection of biosecurity and quarantine orders put in place to stop the spread of the virus. With no data, the risk that these birds present can’t be accurately assessed. H5N1 is a deadly virus that can devastate other poultry farms, as well as multiple wild, livestock, and companion animal species, and people. Furthermore, flu viruses continue to mutate and reassort. H5N1 was shown to develop mutations that facilitate mammalian adaptation when grown in ostrich cells. Can you take the chance that there are no infected ostriches that could be incubating a potential pandemic virus, even if that chance is very small? Depopulation is the only way to fully eliminate that risk.

Finally, the last reason is legal. Canadian law (the Health of Animals Act) authorizes CFIA to impose avian flu control measures according to evidence-based methods. CFIA’s mission is to ensure the health and safety of Canada’s animals and its food supply. They are not trying to kill ostriches for sadistic or selfish reasons. They are implementing an evidence-based international standard intervention for avian flu control, thus reducing risk to other animals and to people. They are doing their jobs to safeguard Canadian people, animals, and agriculture. I am sympathetic to the ostriches’ tragic fate, but they do need to be culled. It is the only way to protect Canadians from a catastrophic agricultural, economic, and public health threat. Their legal responsibility to safeguard Canada against bird flu depends on the law being upheld. This is an essential function of any country that values the health and safety of its citizens. Defying the depopulation order is violating a law that is in place to keep Canadian animals and people safe and healthy and our food supply uncontaminated by deadly bird flu viruses. The law must be upheld.

Public health disinformation is at an all-time high in the US. Lies about health information, viruses, and vaccines are accelerating in Canada, partly driven by Kennedy, Oz, and the rest of the Lysenkoist HHS terror squad down south. Anti-vax views and consequent vaccine hesitancy or refusal have created large enough populations of unvaccinated kids to ignite huge measles outbreaks in Alberta and Ontario this year. Disinformation is being used by the UOF and their followers to raise money, engage in dubious business ventures, put other birds and people at risk, jeopardize international trade, and sabotage the government’s ability to carry out essential functions like controlling H5N1 outbreaks. All of these things put Canadians at risk.

I am American and I am an expert on emerging viruses including H5N1, so I have a lot of direct and ongoing experience with virology-themed propaganda being used to undermine confidence in public health officials and scientists in the service of crushing public health, destroying expertise and evidence-based policy, annihilating our national vaccination program, putting the entire country at risk from H5N1, and tearing apart democracy while making a ton of money doing it. That was what the trucker convoy was about: imposing the will of an extremist anti-vax, anti-public health minority upon the entire nation. Those same people are now camping out at UOF, raising money for themselves and their cause, dreaming of becoming OstriSupplement billionaires, and recklessly endangering Canadian health, safety, and trade with their refusal to abide by CFIA’s orders. If the Freedom Ostriches are not depopulated, these anti-science 51st Staters will score a win and chip away at the government’s ability to execute evidence-based health interventions in the interests of all Canadians. The ostriches must be culled.