Infectious disease veterinarian Scott Weese says the hundreds of ostriches shot dead on a rainy night at a British Columbia farm this month "probably weren't infected" with avian influenza at the time of the cull by the Canadian Food Inspection Agency.

The problem, says Weese, is that "we don't really know," and logistical challenges and conditions at the farm would have hindered rigorous testing of all of the birds.

The H5N1 avian flu virus — detected in the flock of more than 300 ostriches months earlier, prompting a battle by the farm to prevent the cull — cannot be controlled by hoping for the best, says Weese, a professor and infectious disease expert at the Ontario Veterinary College based at the University of Guelph.

"And that's what we would have been doing here."

As the owners

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