This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Vultures are one of the most threatened groups of birds in the world. Currently, at least 16 of the 23 species of vulture are of conservation concern, largely as a result of poisoning and other threats due to human activity.
However, "they provide us with one of the most important ecosystem services for human well-being: they feed on decomposing animal carcasses that harbor pathogens," explains Jon Morant, a researcher at the EHU-University of the Basque Country. "It has been proven that scavengers help prevent or reduce the spread of pathogens. That is, they prevent disease-causing microorganisms from continuing to spread." The avian flu virus (H5N1), which caused the panzootic—the equivalent of a pandemic in animals—is highly contagious and could lead to the collapse of vulture populations, which are already in decline.
In fact, it has been confirmed that the virus has spread widely in certain areas of the world that are critical for vultures, which has had serious consequences. For example, thousands of American black vultures (Coragyps atratus) and turkey vultures (Cathartes aura) have died in the United States and South America. The virus has also had a significant impact on the bearded vulture (Gypaetus barbatus) in Europe and the California condor (Gymnogyps californianus) and Andean condor (Vultur gryphus) in America.
The California condor is critically endangered, and its wild population fell by 6% in just six weeks. To warn of this threat and to establish courses of action to address the problem, Morant, a researcher at the Department of Zoology and Animal Cell Biology of the EHU, published a letter in the journal Conservation Biology, together with several researchers at the Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA, Mallorca) and the Institute for Research in Biodiversity and Environment (INIBIOMA, Argentina). "We wanted to alert the research community and those responsible for conservation so that they could establish coordinated actions," explains Morant.
In general, "vultures are social animals and gather together at the feeding stations; that is, places where the risk of contagion is high. Moreover, they could contract the H5N1 virus if they consume infected animal carcasses. As scavengers, vultures are resistant to many bacteria and pathogens.
However, this is not enough to protect them from the H5N1 virus," explains Morant. The virus has a high fatality rate in both domestic and wild animals. Avian influenza does not exclusively affect birds: it has been documented that more than 48 species of mammals around the world have been infected.
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