A family of large flightless birds that include ostriches, emus, and rheas, which U.S. farmers are beginning to domesticate and raise for food. Ratite inspection has become a policy issue because producers want USDA to include them under the mandatory meat and poultry inspection laws. If plants that slaughter and process these birds were under mandatory inspection, most of the cost would be covered by taxpayers. Currently, such plants must pay for USDA inspection on a fee-for-service basis, under a voluntary ratite inspection program instituted in 1995 under authority of the Agricultural Marketing Act of 1946.

Describes a bird having a keelless sternum, the converse of carinate. A member of the Ratitae.

flightless birds having flat breastbones lacking a keel for attachment of flight muscles: ostriches; cassowaries; emus; moas; rheas; kiwis; elephant birds

a member of the ostrich, emu and rhea families

The family of birds including Ostriches, Emus ad Rheas.

A ratite is any of a diverse group of large, flightless birds of Gondwanan origin, most of them now extinct. Unlike other flightless birds, the ratites have no keel on their sternum and, lacking a strong anchor for their wing muscles, could not fly even were they to develop suitable wings. The name ratite comes from the Latin word for raft (ratis), because their breastbone looks like a raft.