Another fatal blow to Asian vultures
By John Platt
As if it weren’t bad enough that 99.9 percent of Asian vultures have been killed off in the past 20 years, now comes news that yet another potential man-made disaster waits in the wings. Millions of Asian vultures, particularly those in India, have died off over the last two decades after being poisoned by the veterinary drug diclofenac. The vultures eat dead cattle and other livestock treated with the drug, then go into renal failure. Now scientists have discovered that another veterinary drug, ketoprofen, is also fatal to the birds. Vultures which feed on the carcasses of livestock recently treated with ketoprofen suffer acute kidney failure and die within days of exposure. The research was published this week in the journal Biology Letters. Ketoprofen, like diclofenac, is an anti-inflammatory drug administered to livestock to reduce pain and swelling caused by rheumatism or arthritis. It is sold under a variety of brand names. …
