Emmanuel the emu never had avian flu but became ill from stress, the bird’s owner has revealed.
Taylor Blake, an influencer, whose family-owned bird farm in Florida, Knuckle Bump Farms, is home to Emmanuel, took to social media to announce that the emu had never contracted the virus.
“Emmanuel Todd Lopez tested negative for Avian influenza at 2 separate labs, swab, fecal and blood. He does not have the virus, and is not actively shedding the virus,” she tweeted on Saturday.
“He does not have the virus, and is not actively shedding the virus God is good! Thank you for the prayers, the kind words, and the support. Always trust your intuition!”
Virologists said they were left shocked after viral social media posts from Ms Blake showed her hugging the emu on a farm where 50 birds had already died from the disease.
But Ms Blake said that the bird’s symptoms, which included fatigue, lack of appetite, weakness, a twisted neck and “apparent nerve damage” in his right foot were stress-related.
“We believe this all stemmed from stress. Emus are highly susceptible to stress. He was incredibly overwhelmed by the state coming in and euthanizing our flock. (Although it was necessary, it was still very stressful on him) He stopped eating the day they depopulated.”
And she added: “Something in my gut just told me that this wasn’t the end for him. So I kept fighting for him, and I don’t regret it. He never once had a single symptom of AI, other than not eating, which is often caused by stress in emus. It was just very coincidental timing.”
The Twitter thread is going viral as Emmanuel had earlier become the most-followed bird on TikTok for constantly interrupting Ms Blake’s video recordings and pecking at her phone. The farm’s TikTok account has collected more than 2.4 million followers.
