The drug Diclofenac has accidentally poisoned a majority of the critically endangered vultures in India and neighbouring countries and has been found to be the chief culprit in the decline of Vulture population. Vultures are exposed to Diclofenac when scavenging on livestock treated with it. Diclofenac causes kidney damage. Scientist have discovered that the drug Meloxicam, equally effective as Diclofenac in cattle, does not cause any harm to Vultures. Use of Meloxicam would definitely reduce vulture mortality in the Indian subcontinent. Meloxicam is already available for veterinary use in India.
Details of the research are available at
Swan, G., et al. 2006. Removing the threat of diclofenac to critically endangered Asian vultures. PLoS Biology 4(March):e66. Available at http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.0040066.
2 comments:
Thank you for the update on this topic.
This is good news.I was very saddened to read about the death couple of months back
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