Namibian in bid by scientists to save vultures in Asia

LONDON – A Namibian is among scientists who have offered a ray of hope to Asian vultures being wiped out in India after eating the corpses of cattle treated with a common anti-inflammatory drug.

And they called on the Indian government, which has already banned the use of the drug diclofenac, to intensify a captive breeding programme for threatened Oriental white-backed, long-billed and slender-billed vultures. Writing yesterday in the journal PLoS Biology, the scientists from Britain, India, South Africa and Namibia said diclofenac – which is fatal to the birds – could readily be replaced by meloxicam which is not.”We conclude that meloxicam is of low toxicity to (the) vultures and that its use in place of diclofenac would reduce vulture mortality in the Indian subcontinent,” they wrote.The scientists noted that the populations in South Asia of the three threatened vultures had plummeted by more than 97 per cent over the past 15 years because of the widespread use of diclofenac to treat sick cattle.Birds eating the carcass of an animal that had died shortly after treatment with the drug suffered kidney damage, increased serum uric acid concentrations, visceral gout and death.But trials in South Africa and Namibia have shown that vultures suffered no ill effects when fed even high doses of meloxicam which was as effective in cattle as diclofenac.”We recommend that governments consider advocating the use of meloxicam as an alternative to diclofenac,” the scientists wrote.Debbie Pain, head of international research at Britain’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and co-author of the paper, welcomed the rapid results after diclofenac was found to be the culprit just two years ago.”This research is an excellent example of international collaboration in response to an urgent conservation problem,” she said.- Nampa-ReutersWriting yesterday in the journal PLoS Biology, the scientists from Britain, India, South Africa and Namibia said diclofenac – which is fatal to the birds – could readily be replaced by meloxicam which is not.”We conclude that meloxicam is of low toxicity to (the) vultures and that its use in place of diclofenac would reduce vulture mortality in the Indian subcontinent,” they wrote.The scientists noted that the populations in South Asia of the three threatened vultures had plummeted by more than 97 per cent over the past 15 years because of the widespread use of diclofenac to treat sick cattle.Birds eating the carcass of an animal that had died shortly after treatment with the drug suffered kidney damage, increased serum uric acid concentrations, visceral gout and death.But trials in South Africa and Namibia have shown that vultures suffered no ill effects when fed even high doses of meloxicam which was as effective in cattle as diclofenac.”We recommend that governments consider advocating the use of meloxicam as an alternative to diclofenac,” the scientists wrote.Debbie Pain, head of international research at Britain’s Royal Society for the Protection of Birds and co-author of the paper, welcomed the rapid results after diclofenac was found to be the culprit just two years ago.”This research is an excellent example of international collaboration in response to an urgent conservation problem,” she said.- Nampa-Reuters