Bird Flu Could Enter U.S. Through New Mexico or Louisiana: States Allow Cockfighting and Transportation of Fighting Birds

The U.S. has gaping holes in its efforts to keep avian bird flu out of the country.

It stems from the fact that New Mexico and Louisiana allow cockfighting (rooster fights) and the fact that the Animal Welfare Act allows for combat roosters to be transported over state and national lines to those states where the bloodsport is legal.

The concern comes from overseas, as some people have gotten bird flu from their contaminated combat roosters, mainly in Thailand.

The current conventional wisdom is that each time the bird flu jumps from an animal to a human, it increases the possibility of the bird flu mutating into a monster epidemic/pandemic that goes airborne, easily infects humans, and is resistant to antibiotics. This must not be allowed to happen.

The U.S. government should ban the import and/or transport of combat roosters to any U.S. territory, whether cockfighting is legal in the states or not.

Efforts to amend the Animal Welfare Act have failed thus far; cosponsors in the House and Senate tried to attach an amendment to a Department of Defense Bill, which they shouldn't have done. It should have been a stand-alone bill: the Senate unanimously passed the amendment, and the House amendment had two hundred cosponsors. But the amendment was killed in committee.

Hopefully the state governments of Louisiana and New Mexico do the right thing and ban both the import of foreign birds and criminalize cockfighting, since it has been shown to be an avenue for avian bird flu to contaminate humans.

But the U.S. government should get with the program and pass the Animal Fighting Prohibition Enforcement Act regardless of what Louisiana and New Mexico choose to do.