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U.S. ostrich farmers say they’re finding new customers who suffer from a red meat allergy contracted from ticks. Ostrich meat has a similar taste and color to beef and is safe to eat for sufferers of the allergy called Alpha-gal syndrome.
There are only a few farms in the United States that are raising large herds of ostrich. They say they’re getting messages daily from Alpha-gal sufferers who crave the taste of red meat.
Alpha Roost Farms owner W.D. King got into the ostrich business after he lost his job in 2022. “I’ve been in poultry nutrition work most of my life in research, as a job, and then raised beef cattle here on the farm. And I kind of started joking that, ostrich, you know, I’ll start raising ostriches. That’s what we’ll do. And opened my mouth to the wrong fella. I was talking to Brent one day; he had the same question, you know, what are you going to do? I said, ah, you know, I’ll just raise ostriches. And he said, if you’re serious, I’m in,” says King.
The birds can stand nine feet tall (2.7 meters) and weigh more than 300 pounds (136 kilograms). Their meat is red and rich in iron, like beef.
King says his ostrich meat gets a lot of interest from people who suffer from Alpha-gal syndrome. “Alpha-gal is the main driver. That is what’s driving the ostrich market. It does not, the ostrich meat, because it’s a bird, not a mammal, doesn’t contain the Alpha-gal molecule, so you can safely eat that meat without reaction, and it’s very much like a steak.”
King says raising the birds is very different from raising chickens or cows. The males can be aggressive, so when he collects the eggs in the field, he has a special caged vehicle.
The farm has built a new barn to raise young ostriches that have hatched from eggs. It is growing its vendor list, as more Alpha-gal sufferers learn about the meat’s taste.
This article was provided by The Associated Press.