eli5: Why do humans who drink contaminated water like from rivers get sick, while wild animals drinking from the same source don’t?
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There are different ways for water to be contaminated. Some sources of water have really nasty pollutants, bacteria, and parasites in it – humans or animals drinking this water will get sick. Other sources of water aren’t contaminated by these very nasty things, but just somewhat dirty or populated with less-harmful-but-still-bad bacteria and parasites. Animals will also get also get sick from these but at a level that they can handle and build up some immune response to. Most people in developed countries have access to clean water most of the time and never get exposed to these pathogens, so if they did, they would get sick.
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