BBC 1/29/04: Vet drug used in India and Pakistan 'killing Asian vultures'

[Guest guest]

>

>BBC DAILY E-MAIL: UK EDITION

>Thursday, 29 January, 2004, 9:00 GMT 01:00 -08:00:US/Pacific

>

>

> * Vet drug 'killing Asian vultures' *

>A common livestock drug used in India and

>Pakistan is having catastrophic consequences for

>vulture populations, say scientists.

>Full story:

>http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/1/hi/sci/tech/3437583.stm

>

Vet drug 'killing Asian vultures'

Scientists believe they have identified the main

cause behind the catastrophic decline seen in

Asian vulture numbers.

 

In the past 10 years, population losses of more

than 95% have been reported in three raptor

species across many areas of the Indian

sub-continent.

 

Lindsay Oaks' research team has now shown the

birds are dying after eating the carcasses of

livestock treated with the common veterinary drug

diclofenac.

 

Dr Oaks, backed by The Peregrine Fund, reports his work in Nature magazine.

 

" This discovery is significant in that it is the

first known case of a pharmaceutical causing

major ecological damage over a huge geographic

area and threatening three species with

extinction, " the US researcher from Washington

State University said.

 

The three species are the Oriental white-backed

vulture ( Gyps bengalensis ), the long-billed

vulture ( Gyps indicus ) and the slender-billed

vulture ( Gyps tenuirostris ).

 

All three are now classed as critically endangered.

 

Experimental work

 

The birds succumb to kidney failure and visceral

gout. Early signs that the raptors are affected

can be seen from the way they hang their heads

down to their feet for long periods.

 

Such has been the alarming decline in bird

numbers that international organisations have

pumped hundreds of thousands of pounds into

research to track down the cause of all the

deaths.

 

Now, Dr Oaks and colleagues have found high

residues diclofenac in dead vultures in the field.

 

They have also been able produce similar patterns

of disease in experimental vulture colonies fed

the drug either directly or via carcasses of

buffalo or goat that had been treated with

diclofenac.

 

Other possible causes of death, such as poisoning

by mercury or arsenic or infection by viruses,

have been investigated and ruled out.

 

Diclofenac is a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory

drug that has been in human use for pain and

inflammation for decades. The veterinary use of

diclofenac on livestock in South Asia has grown

in the past decade.

 

Pivotal role

 

The Nature report has led ornithological and

other conservation groups to call for the

immediate withdrawal of diclofenac from use.

 

" Vultures have an important ecological role in

the Asian environment, where they have been

relied upon for millennia to clean up and remove

dead livestock and even human corpses, " said Dr

Munir Virani, a biologist for US-based Peregrine

Fund, and who coordinated the massive field

investigations across Nepal, India, and Pakistan.

 

" Their loss has important economic, cultural, and human health consequences. "

 

One immediate impact has been the explosion in

feral dog populations which have moved into areas

no longer scavenged by vultures.

 

Britain has invested significant research time

and money on the vulture problem through its

Darwin Initiative for the Survival of Species.

 

Dr Debbie Pain, a research scientist at the Royal

Society for the Protection of Birds, said: " In

the 1980s, [ Gyps bengalensis ] was thought to be

the most abundant large bird of prey in the

world, but in little over a decade, the

population has crashed by more than 99%, with the

loss of tens of millions of birds.

 

" The decline of Asian vultures is one of the

steepest declines experienced by any bird

species, and is certainly faster than that

suffered by the dodo before its extinction. If

nothing is done these vulture species will become

extinct. "

 

 

Story from BBC NEWS:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/sci/tech/3437583.stm

 

Published: 2004/01/28 18:36:46 GMT

 

© BBC MMIV

 

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