Cockfighting and the Spread of Bird Flu

[tyto]

Here's an interesting article on cockfighting from the Humane Society.
I'm not passing judgement here - just another reminder that human behavior can sometimes trump viral sneakiness when it comes to spreading diseases.

Source: http://www.hsus.org/farm/news/ournews/cockfighting_bird_flu.html

Excerpt...

During fights, it's not uncommon to see a cockfighter bend down mid-bout to try to suck the fluids out of a dying bird's airways to cruelly extend the length of the battle. In doing so, the cockfighters increase risk of infection. In a 2004 example from Thailand, the country's Department of Disease Control described a case of a young man who had "very close contact to ... fighting cocks by carrying and helping to clear up the mucus secretion from the throat of the cock during the fighting game by using his mouth." As one leading epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control commented dryly, "That was a risk factor for avian flu we hadn't really considered before."

 

[Tonka]

Re: Cock fighting: Humans sucking bloody mucus from roosters

Re: Cock fighting: Humans sucking bloody mucus from roosters

Ewww! This horribly, awful, disgusting "sport" is popular here in Mexico...
The procedure described above is also done here.