Why Don’t Scavengers Get Sick?

Plants and Animals





Photo credit:

Nick Fox / Shutterstock

Vultures can devour diseased, rotten meat and take to the skies perfectly fine; carrion beetles can chomp at a decaying carcass by coating it in antimicrobial slime; and nearly 48 million Americans get food poisoning each year. You’ve got wonder, how do these creatures do it? And can we scavenge any tricks from these scavengers?