Vultures feast on rotting flesh that may be contaminated with faeces.

Vultures have evolved extreme digestive systems to cope with their disgusting diet, scientists have discovered.

The scavenging birds happily feast on rotting flesh that may be contaminated with faeces yet are immune to the cocktail of deadly bugs that accompany their dinner.

Other animals would almost certainly be killed by the microbes, which include clostridia, fuso and anthrax bacteria, said the researchers.

To learn more, the scientists profiled the DNA of bacteria living in the gut and on the faces of 50 vultures from the US.

They discovered that “something radical” happens to the bugs as they pass through the vulture’s digestive system.

Lead scientist Michael Roggenbuck, from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, said: “Our results show there has been strong adaptation in vultures when it comes to dealing with the toxic bacteria they digest.

“On one hand, vultures have developed an extremely tough digestive system, which simply acts to destroy the majority of the dangerous bacteria they ingest.

“On the other hand, vultures also appear to have developed a tolerance towards some of the deadly bacteria – species that would kill other animals actively seem to flourish in the vulture lower intestine.”

The scientists think the surviving deadly bugs may actually benefit the vultures by breaking down carrion and releasing its nutrients.

While the facial skin of vultures contained DNA from 528 different types of microbe, evidence of only 76 kinds of bug were found in the gut.

The research is reported in the journal Nature Communications.