Vulture Die-offs in Pakistan
Photo by Munir Virani, courtesy of The Peregrine Fund
The USGS National Wildlife Health Center (NWHC) is collaborating on
investigations into the cause for decline of the white-backed
vulture in Pakistan. Most of these vultures have died from
kidney failure. Residue analysis in wild vultures from Pakistan
and toxicity experiments have shown vultures, unlike mammals, to
be extremely sensitive to diclofenac, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory
drug, commonly used by veterinarians on agricultural animals in
Pakistan. Small concentrations of this pharmaceutical remaining in
tissue of livestock scavenged by vultures results in renal failure. These findings
implicate diclofenac as the cause of drastic decline in the white-backed
vulture population (90%) in the past 5 years. Vultures are
exposed to diclofenac by scavenging agricultural animals that have
been treated with diclofenac before death. The journal Nature
has published the paper reporting these findings.
Conservation biology: Fatal medicine for vultures in Nature On-line
A
Drug Used for Cattle Is Said to Be Killing Vultures in New
York Times 1/29/2004
Diclofenac residues as the cause of vulture population decline in Pakistan in Nature On-line
Pharmaceutical May Cause Extinction of Three Species Press Release from The Peregrine Fund
For more information, contact Dr. Carol Meteyer (608) 270-2462 or Paul Slota
(608) 270-2420
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U.S. Department of the Interior | U.S. Geological Survey
