The birds that eat disease are being eaten by bird fluVultures Help Eliminate Pathogens. Bird Flu Could Eliminate Them

Vultures neutralize rabies, anthrax and botulism by eating carrion, but H5N1 avian flu is now coming back at them through those same carcasses, and 16 of 23 vulture species are already listed as threatened.

A vulture's stomach acid digests rotting meat and takes rabies, anthrax and botulism down with it. Now H5N1 avian flu is finding them through those same carcasses, and 16 of 23 vulture species are already listed as threatened.

The twist is a feedback loop: the more vultures die, the less carrion gets cleared, the more pathogens spread, and the more vultures die.

I did not expect that protecting a bird that eats corpses would end up protecting us.