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C. Botulinum has a complicated life cycle that involves infecting vertebrates, killing them, and then infecting the invertebrates that feed on the body during d
by AlotOfReading 5y ago
C. Botulinum has a complicated life cycle that involves infecting vertebrates, killing them, and then infecting the invertebrates that feed on the body during decomposition. The bacteria don't particularly care about the host and just want it dead as quickly as possible so they can get on with their real hosts.
[1] https://doi.org/10.1093/femspd/fty040 https://doi.org/10.1093/femspd/fty040
- linspace 5y agoWhat would be the role of the bacteria in a zombie invasion? Would it eat the zombies away or would it give them natural protection from predators? Both?
- AlotOfReading 5y agoBotulinum toxins are paralytic, so they'd make very tame zombies. Fungi would take care of the rest pretty quickly.
- jimworm 5y agoIts very close cousin tetanus toxin has the opposite effect, but would also cause zombies to be immobile all the same.
- noisy_boy 5y agoMight be interesting to know how vultures deal with this.
- Igelau 5y agoNature's beautiful garbage disposal. Botulism. Anthrax. Vultures don't care.
- skywal_l 5y agohttps://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/11/25/366545524/how-can-vultures-eat-rotten-roadkill-and-survive https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/11/25/3665455... They are not sure as there are various hypotheses apparently: > He says vulture stomach acid is 10 to 100 times stronger than human stomach acid, "so it seems like the stomach itself is a very harsh environment." > "Another hypothesis could be that they're actually using the bacteria in the stomach as some sort of probiotics," Hansen says. By having a gut full of a few tolerable species of bacteria, it's possible that those would crowd out other deadly microbes.