Last month we reported on the decline of the vulture population in Africa and South East Asia. The article revealed how falling numbers in South Africa could be linked to locals eating the meat to gain clairvoyant powers as well as an increase in vulture shootings by starving farmers. The use of pesticides, though, was mostly to blame.
In Asia, the dramatic drop in the population is partly due to the use of the painkiller diclofenac, given to cattle, which is then passed on to vultures feeding on the carcasses of livestock. Without vultures to eat animal corpses, animals such as feral dogs take over, destroying livestock and wildlife.
It now seems that at least one drug company is taking the threat seriously. Last week, Medivet, Nepal's largest manufacturer of diclofenac, announced that it would replace the drug with a safe alternative called meloxicam. Vulture numbers on the Indian subcontinent have fallen from more than 40 million to a few thousand over the last decade and India already plans to replace diclofenac with meloxicam. Chris Bowden, of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, says that Medivet's move earns them 'a huge pat on the back'.