ISTANBUL

Canada’s top court on Thursday cleared the way for authorities to carry out what officials have termed a “complete depopulation” of nearly 400 ostriches at a British Columbia farm, rejecting an appeal to halt the mass cull amid fears of an H5N1 avian flu outbreak.

The Guardian reported that the Supreme Court’s decision ends months of legal wrangling between the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) and Universal Ostrich Farms near Edgewood, where officials said the flock poses a serious biosecurity risk.

The agency said its “stamping out” policy follows World Health Organization (WHO) guidance to contain avian influenza.

Farm representatives condemned the decision. “They are prehistoric animals that have survived millions of years, but they won’t survive the Canadian Food Inspection Agency,” said spokesperson Katie Pasitney, accusing authorities of “murdering healthy birds.”

Co-owner Dave Bilinski added he feared “there’s no justice left.”

The farm’s owners argued the surviving ostriches appear healthy and may have developed partial immunity after the last bird flu death in January. But a federal court warned that keeping them alive risked spreading the virus to other animals, the poultry industry, or even humans.

The cull has drawn international attention and political controversy. US Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. reportedly lobbied Canadian officials to spare the birds, while Mehmet Oz, head of the US Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, offered to relocate them to his Florida ranch.

The CFIA has not disclosed when the culling will begin, but witnesses told the Canadian press that officials were seen installing floodlights and equipment around the farm shortly after the ruling.