Diclofenac Banned to Save Vultures

Asian vultures near extinction after 15 years of exposure to a toxic drug used in veterinary medicine. Can they be saved?

Where have the vultures of Asia gone? They started to disappear in the 1990’s with populations falling by as much as 30 percent per year. Today, 95 percent of them are gone. While vultures don’t have the reputation of being the nicest of birds, they are often referred to as a keystone species. Vultures help clear away dead animal carcasses, thereby limiting populations of other scavengers and preventing the spread of disease. Without vultures, populations of other species shift with significant consequences for the environment as a whole.

So what’s happened to the vultures? The answer is Diclofenac, an anti-inflammatory drug used to treat both humans and animals. The drug has been used in human medicine for a long time, but only recently made its way into veterinary medicine. Cheap and effective, it’s become a first line drug for livestock. There’s a problem, however – it causes kidney failure, and it causes it in birds at one tenth the dose that’s safe in mammals. When an animal is treated with Diclofenac and dies shortly afterwards, its remains lying out in the open, vultures that come to commence the cleanup receive a lethal dose.

Finally, in 2006, Asian countries have banned the use of Diclofenac, and veterinary medicine is switching to the much safer drug, Meloxicam. Removal of Diclofenac from the environment, and captive breeding programs, may save the Asian vultures that have come close to extinction. Only time will tell.

An excellent article on this issue can be found at Bird Life International