The US Lacey Act is a One Health policy framework 125 years in the making

The Lacey Act of 1900, in its contemporary form, authorizes the US Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) to regulate wildlife species as “injurious,” thereby prohibiting their importation into the United States without a USFWS import permit. To date, most injurious species have been listed because of their potential ecological impacts. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 directed the USFWS to assess the zoonotic disease risk associated with wildlife imported into the United States for potential injurious listing. In this Forum, we explore the Lacey Act's role in preventing zoonotic pathogens from entering the United States via the international wildlife trade. We give particular attention to the act's capacity to unify human, animal, and environmental regulatory goals, including by identifying ways in which the novel use of historic regulations may assist other governments with promulgating One Health legal or policy frameworks.