Morsigil t1_iu5ic4t wrote on October 28, 2022 at 6:23 PM

Reply to comment by mrshatnertoyou in Zombie pigeons in the UK: Mystery bird illness turns living birds into zombies by AugustWolf22

Huh.. "invariably fatal" and "surviving birds" seem mutually exclusive.

Piranha91 t1_iu5nz0l wrote on October 28, 2022 at 7:01 PM

Pretty sure it means before they shed virus while they’re still alive.

Lukeds t1_iu64brt wrote on October 28, 2022 at 8:53 PM

I mean they don't in context but they do in your comment. Birds that have caught the disease but HAVE NOT died aka "surviving birds" spread the disease. Then they will die eventually.

TooDamnPretty t1_iu66e52 wrote on October 28, 2022 at 9:08 PM

"infected birds" would be a better word choice. Surviving implies recovery, which doesn't match with a 100% fatality rate.

PuellaBona t1_iu7ptnl wrote on October 29, 2022 at 4:57 AM

The article was wrong. Some birds do survive. No pathogen kills 100% of its hosts. It wouldn't survive.

imnota4 t1_iu82qwe wrote on October 29, 2022 at 7:54 AM

That's not true at all, rabies is a perfect example of a pathogen with a 100% kill rate. It eats away at the nerves and brain of anything it infects.

PuellaBona t1_iu8927s wrote on October 29, 2022 at 9:30 AM

No pathogen has a 100% kill rate

https://www.cdc.gov/rabies/location/usa/surveillance/human_rabies.html