this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2026
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Guess what: It's fact check time!!
Anthrax: ❌
Botulism (actually botox, botulism is the illness caused by botox. You can't quite eat an illness): ✅
(Yes, the article made the same mistake)
Rabies: ❌
Cholera (actually avian cholera, which is distinct from "normal" cholera): ❓
So 2/4 diseases are already irrelevant for birds but they sound scary because they infect humans. But:
Avian cholera barely even counts because it's caused by "Pasteurella multocida" while (human) cholera is caused by "Vibrio cholerae". The two bacteria are genetically as closely related as humans and mammoths. And avian cholera does not kill anything but birds.
--
This isn't to degrade the vulture's ability to withstand pathogens and toxins, that is still very impressive. It's just that obviously birds are immune to most human diseases, as pathogens don't tend to easily jump between distant species.
And even if they DO jump between species, they usually do not bring their "deadliness" with them (unless they produce poison like botox) as different species react completely differently. Maybe rabies is the one exception, as adjusting the behavior of your host by rummaging around in the brain has some universally negative side effects.
Just wanted to note that botox is actually just a shortening of botulinum toxin. The organism that produces it is Clostridium botulinum.
ok so they still carry it so it can infect and spread