Ray of Hope for Vultures Facing Extinction
- Press Release from PLoS Biology
Public Library Of Science
Today saw a glimmer of hope for the three species of Asian
vulture threatened with extinction.
Oriental white-backed, long-billed, and slender-billed vultures
in South Asia have suffered one of the most rapid and widespread
population declines of any bird species, declining by more
than 97% over the last 10-15 years.
These declines were caused by the widespread veterinary use
of the drug diclofenac for the treatment of sick domestic
livestock throughout the Indian subcontinent. Diclofenac kills
vultures that feed on the bodies of livestock that have been
given the drug shortly before death.
To combat diclofenac’s devastating effects on vulture
populations, the Indian government announced, in March 2005,
its intention to phase out the use of the drug. However, progress
has been hampered by the lack of an alternative drug that
is known to be safe for vultures yet effective for treating
livestock.
In a new report published in the open access journal PLoS
Biology, a team of scientists from South Africa, Namibia,
India, and the UK concluded that such an alternative has now
been found.
The team, led by Gerry Swan of the University of Pretoria,
found that the drug meloxicam was safe to vultures at the
likely range of levels they would be exposed to in the wild.
Meloxicam, which is similar to diclofenac in its effectiveness
for treating livestock, has recently become available for
veterinary use in India and could easily be used in place
of diclofenac.
“This research is an excellent example of international
collaboration in response to an urgent conservation problem,”
Said Dr Debbie Pain, Head of International Research at the
RSPB and a co-author of the paper.
Fellow-author Dr Rhys Green, Principal Research Biologist
at the RSPB and a scientist at Cambridge University, said:
“Dr Lindsay Oaks discovered that diclofenac is the
cause of the vulture declines just two years ago, so having
found a practical solution so quickly is encouraging. Even
so, vulture populations are declining so fast that it could
still be too late to save them unless action is taken immediately.”
Publication of these results is very timely because the government
of India today convened a two-day international meeting to
decide how to save the endangered vultures. Removal of diclofenac
from their food supply is a vital step, so the identification
of an alternative drug may have come just in time.
Dr Asad Rahmani, Director of the Bombay Natural History Society
said: “It is essential that the government of India
acts quickly to make good use of this new information. Diclofenac
must be replaced by meloxicam as soon as possible and there
are many things that government can do to speed this up.”
The vulture declines have had profound ecological and social
consequences. Vultures play a vital role in environmental
health by disposing of carcasses and reducing the risk of
disease.
The two key steps necessary to save vultures from extinction
are removal of diclofenac from their food chain, and the establishment
of conservation centres for captive breeding as a stop-gap
measure until that is achieved.
“It is essential that the environment is free of
diclofenac before vultures from conservation breeding centres
can be released into the wild,” said RSPB Research
Biologist Dr Richard Cuthbert, who coordinated the new research.
“In view of these findings, there is now no reason
for governments to delay in banning the veterinary use of
diclofenac.”
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