Does cockfighting spread avian flu?

From today’s Washington Post:

Cockfighting, popular in many parts of Southeast Asia, is suspected of spreading the highly lethal bird flu virus from poultry to humans through contact with blood, feces and droplets of fluid. It is one of several cultural practices, including the eating of raw duck blood and the raising of chickens in back yards, that are threatening to help spark a global pandemic that the World Health Organization warns could kill tens of millions of people.

For centuries, these practices posed no human threat. But a dramatic increase in poultry farming in the region in the past 15 years has allowed avian influenza to become entrenched in the bird population. Now, these cultural routines represent a potential springboard for a human epidemic.

"There will be opportunities for the virus to take advantage of these practices," said Klaus Stohr, director of WHO's global influenza program. "They didn't cause trouble before, but now they do."

In September, the virus killed an 18-year-old Thai man who raised fighting cocks outside Bangkok. Thai health officials said he had the habit of sucking mucus and blood from the beaks of his injured roosters and sometimes even slept with his birds. Earlier last year, a 13-year-old boy who frequented cockfights in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City and often held the birds before the bouts also succumbed to the disease.

Read the full article.