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The future of nature's undertakers remains finely balanced
Last modified: 07 September 2011
India's wild vultures remain in peril as long as toxic drugs remain in circulation
Londoners who supported the RSPB’s campaign to save south Asia’s fast dwindling vulture populations are being told the captive breeding programme’s just recorded its most successful year yet in India, with the number of fledged chicks almost double that of last year.
Thanks to their support, eighteen vulture chicks have been successfully reared in captivity in 2011; the largest annual total to date. Another first for the captive breeding centre this year is a number of ‘double clutches’, meaning some pairs produced a second egg and chick, as the first was removed, hatched in incubators and reared by highly trained Bombay Natural History Society [BNHS] staff.
Fifteen of the 18 fledged juveniles were at the Pinjore centre in Haryana, whilst the remaining three were at Rajabhat Khawa in West Bengal. Four of the total number of fledged birds were a direct result of the ‘double clutches’ and artificial incubation. Critical Ecosystems Partnership Fund has provided much of the support for running the Pinjore centre over this recent important phase.
The BNHS, with support from the RSPB and newly-formed consortium Saving Asia’s Vultures from Extinction (SAVE) manages three conservation breeding centres in India where 271 vultures are housed and successful breeding of all three species has now occurred. There are also conservation breeding centres linked to the SAVE programme in Nepal and Pakistan.
The launch of SAVE in February 2011 was a major milestone in the battle to stop Asia's vultures meeting the same fate as the dodo and passenger pigeon. It is a unique opportunity to help save three critically important species from extinction through a single programme, which brings together ten organisations working to save the vultures.
Chris Bowden, the RSPB’s head of vulture programme and SAVE spokesperson said: “Three species of south Asia's vultures are heading for extinction so we have to act now to save them. With the latest success at the breeding centres we’re more confident than ever that there will be sufficient numbers for reintroduction to the wild as soon as it’s safe for them, but until the banned drug, diclofenac, is removed from the environment, we cannot guarantee these birds have any future in the wild. SAVE’s ultimate aim is to turn the catastrophic decline of the vultures into one of the greatest conservation success stories of all time. We’re on the right track, but there is a long way still to go.”
The good news of this year’s breeding success is being overshadowed by a new study, published in science journal Oryx. Research has found that over a third of Indian pharmacies continue to sell diclofenac for veterinary use, despite the drug being banned in 2006 because of its toxicity to critically endangered vultures. The drug can be commonly found in the bathroom cabinets of many Londoners. It’s a general anti-inflammatory licensed for human use but now banned for veterinary use across many parts of south Asia to safeguard vultures.
Farmers and livestock owners are getting round the veterinary ban by purchasing human diclofenac in conveniently large bottles to treat their cattle. The practice is proving difficult to prevent, given the wide availability of human diclofenac. Some of the other diclofenac on sale was formulated for veterinary use and had been manufactured illegally after the 2006 ban. A vulture-friendly and cost effective alternative to diclofenac, called meloxicam, is available and manufactured in India.
Diclofenac is responsible for bringing three species of Gyps vultures, endemic to South Asia, to the brink of extinction. They ingest it when cleaning carcases of dead animals that have been treated with dicolfenac. It causes liver failure in vultures. The population crash of these vultures was first noted in the late 1990s. Since then their rate of decline has been steeper than nearly any other bird species, including the infamous dodo.
After discovering the link between the drug and the population crash, the RSPB campaigned with others to convince the Indian Government to ban veterinary diclofenac. Similar bans in Nepal and Pakistan followed. Further measures in India, in August 2008, placed additional restrictions prohibiting the manufacture, sale and distribution of diclofenac and its formulations for animal use with contravention being punishable with imprisonment.
The research to evaluate the effectiveness of the 2006 ban was conducted by surveys in over 250 veterinary and general pharmacy shops in 11 Indian states from November 2007 to June 2010. The surveyors asked if they could buy non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for treating cattle. Diclofenac was recorded in 36% of shops and we know from other studies[1] that this must be the source of diclofenac found in cattle carcasses.
Lead author and principal conservation scientist at the RSPB, Dr Richard Cuthbert, said: “The ban is still quite easy to avoid because human formulations are still freely for sale in large vials which are convenient for use on large animals like cattle and clearly not suitable for human use. Preventing the misuse of human diclofenac for veterinary use remains the main challenge in halting the decline of endangered vultures.”
While the research shows that there is still widespread availability of diclofenac after the ban, encouragingly it also shows an increase in meloxicam (found in 70 per cent of pharmacies). There is also evidence that untested drugs such as nimesulide are more widely available in the market. The effects these drugs have on vultures are as yet unknown. Ketoprofen, an alternative that has been tested and shown to be deadly to vultures has still not been banned. It was on sale for veterinary use in 29% of pharmacies.
Dr Vibhu Prakash of the BNHS, and co-author said: “While the increase in meloxicam brands and availability is encouraging, a major concern from these surveys is the still widespread availability of diclofenac in pharmacies after the ban. Firm action at Government level against pharmaceutical companies and pharmaceutical shops that are breaking the law by manufacturing and selling diclofenac for veterinary use is urgently needed if we are to save vultures from extinction.”
For more information visit www.rspb.org.uk/vultures and www.save-vultures.org www.bnhs.org www.birdlifenepal.org www.icbp.org www.ntnc.org.np
[1] A study published on 12 May 2011 in science journal, PLoS ONE, found that the proportion of cattle carcasses in India contaminated with diclofenac had declined by over 40% between the ban in 2006 and 2008. However, the resulting vulture decline rate is still expected to be around 18% per year for the most susceptible species, the oriental white-backed vulture, down from about 40% per year before the ban, meaning that vultures will not recover unless efforts to eradicate the drug become still more successful.
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