Emmanuel, TikTok-famous emu, is fighting for his life amid a deadly bird flu crisis

Emmanuel has nerve damage in his right leg and is unable to eat or drink after contracting it the disease on Wednesday, content creators and hobbyists Taylor Blake shared on social media late Saturday. Blake, whose family owns Knuckle Bump Farms in South Florida, said the farm lost more than 50 birds in three days – all but Emmanuel and Rico the swan.

Emmanuel — the roughly 5-foot-8, 120-pound emu whom the Washington Post interviewed in July — faces “a long road” to recovery, Blake said. But he’s a “fighter,” she added.

The United States is in the midst of a month-long outbreak of bird flu that experts say is the worst since 2015, when a “highly pathogenic” strain of the disease affected more than 49 million birds. The Department of Agriculture called it the “costliest animal health emergency” in its history.

Avian flu has spread to 27 states, sending egg prices skyrocketing

Blake said she suspects the bird flu outbreak on the farm was spread by crowds of people wild Egyptian geese, a species of waterfowl known as waterfowl, routinely Fly in “under cover of darkness”. She said she believes they are spreading the disease among the domesticated birds there.

“The virus has hit her extremely hard and very quickly,” Blake wrote on Twitter, describing the magnitude of the loss of her family farm: “Every single” chicken, duck, goose, female black swan and turkey on the farm died in just three days.

Have Emmanuel’s videos reached millions of people on TikTok, Instagram and Twitter. Blake and a puppet of Emmanuel appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon in July. and Knuckle Bump Farms began selling merchandise with the emu’s face on it.

Now Blake wants to use what happened to their farm to raise awareness about the disease. She said she was “dedicated” to making sure Emmanuel survived – and described a sling she and friend Kristian Haggerty built so the emu could “start physical therapy”.

In a video posted late Saturday, Emmanuel appeared alert and once looked directly at the camera as Blake blew kisses on his head.

Avian influenza is a viral disease that typically spreads from wild birds to domesticated birds through bodily fluids, including saliva and feces. In its highly pathogenic form, it is extremely contagious and deadly and cannot be treated.

The virus affects birds differently: some are simply found dead with no sign of illness, while in others it can cause neurological damage, including seizures, according to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission.

While experts say the risk of bird-to-human transmission is low, it can happen and cause serious illness or death. In April, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention confirmed that a person in Colorado “involved in the culling (depopulation) of poultry with suspected H5N1 avian influenza” tested positive for the virus, had symptoms, and then recovered . The health risk for the general population remains low.

The highly contagious bird flu circulating in the DC region poses no danger to humans, officials say

The current outbreak of highly pathogenic avian influenza began in Canada in January 2022 and is believed to have spread from Europe. Wild birds migrating to the United States are thought to have brought the virus to dozens of states — including for the first time Florida, where the outbreak was “unprecedented,” the commission said.

Blake said Saturday she had been in contact with Florida officials who she said told her that standing water left behind by Hurricane Ian, which hit the state in late September, “let the virus run rampant.”

Florida wildlife officials could not be immediately reached for comment early Sunday. Various studies have shown that the risk of the highly pathogenic avian influenza spreading increases the closer you are to contaminated water.

Ian is Florida’s deadliest hurricane since 1935. Most of the victims drowned.

In a previous interview with The Post, Blake described how she began posting videos of the animals at Knuckle Bump Farms in 2018 to entertain and educate people about farm life. When Emmanuel first interrupted her while she was filming a video at the farm, Blake was irritated and didn’t post it. About a month later, she watched the video again on her phone and found the interruption funny.

“I just posted it and didn’t think anything of it,” she said at the time. From then on there was “a complete spiral”.

Blake said Emmanuel has a real “obsession with the camera” — and her. “No matter where I am… he always has to be right next to me.”

Shortly after Blake tweeted about Emmanuel’s condition, messages of support came from well-wishers who have come to love Emmanuel and his relentless pursuit of its owner’s phone.

“DON’T YOU DARE Emmanuel Todd Lopez. You are the king of birds and YOU WILL SURVIVE!!!” said one, using Emmanuel’s full name and repeating Blake’s standard rebuke for the rebellious bird.

“We love you Emmanuel! You were put on this earth to bring joy to the world,” one wrote. “Fight on!!!”