Skip to content
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Menu
Home
About Us
Resources
Profiles Metrics
Authors Directory
Institutions Directory
Top Authors
Top Institutions
Top Sponsors
AI Digest
Contact Us
Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
Removing the threat of diclofenac to critically endangered Asian vultures
PLoS Biology, Volume 4, No. 3, Year 2006
Notification
URL copied to clipboard!
Description
Veterinary use of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) drug diclofenac in South Asia has resulted in the collapse of populations of three vulture species of the genus Gyps to the most severe category of global extinction risk. Vultures are exposed to diclofenac when scavenging on livestock treated with the drug shortly before death. Diclofenac causes kidney damage, increased serum uric acid concentrations, visceral gout, and death. Concern about this issue led the Indian Government to announce its intention to ban the veterinary use of diclofenac by September 2005. Implementation of a ban is still in progress late in 2005, and to facilitate this we sought potential alternative NSAIDs by obtaining information from captive bird collections worldwide. We found that the NSAID meloxicam had been administered to 35 captive Gyps vultures with no apparent ill effects. We then undertook a phased programme of safety testing of meloxicam on the African white-backed vulture Gyps africanus, which we had previously established to be as susceptible to diclofenac poisoning as the endangered Asian Gyps vultures. We estimated the likely maximum level of exposure (MLE) of wild vultures and dosed birds by gavage (oral administration) with increasing quantities of the drug until the likely MLE was exceeded in a sample of 40 G. africanus. Subsequently, six G. africanus were fed tissues from cattle which had been treated with a higher than standard veterinary course of meloxicam prior to death. In the final phase, ten Asian vultures of two of the endangered species (Gyps bengalensis, Gyps indicus) were dosed with meloxicam by gavage; five of them at more than the likely MLE dosage. All meloxicam-treated birds survived all treatments, and none suffered any obvious clinical effects. Serum uric acid concentrations remained within the normal limits throughout, and were significantly lower than those from birds treated with diclofenac in other studies. We conclude that meloxicam is of low toxicity to Gyps vultures and that its use in place of diclofenac would reduce vulture mortality substantially in the Indian subcontinent. Meloxicam is already available for veterinary use in India. Copyright: © 2006 Swan et al.
Available Materials
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC1351921/bin/pbio.0040066.sd001.doc
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC1351921/bin/pbio.0040066.sd002.doc
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC1351921/bin/pbio.0040066.st001.doc
Authors & Co-Authors
Swan, Gerald E.
South Africa, Pretoria
University of Pretoria
Naidoo, Vinny
South Africa, Pretoria
University of Pretoria
Cuthbert, Richard J.
United Kingdom, Bedford
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
Green, Rhys E.
United Kingdom, Bedford
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
United Kingdom, Cambridge
University of Cambridge
Pain, Deborah J.
United Kingdom, Bedford
Royal Society for the Protection of Birds
Swarup, Devendra
India, Bareilly
Indian Veterinary Research Institute
Prakash, Vibhu M.
India, Mumbai
Bombay Natural History Society
Taggart, Mark A.
United Kingdom, Aberdeen
University of Aberdeen
Bekker, Lizette C.
South Africa, Pretoria
University of Pretoria
Das, Devojit
India, Mumbai
Bombay Natural History Society
Diekmann, Jörg
Namibia
Rare and Endangered Species Trust
Diekmann, Maria
Namibia
Rare and Endangered Species Trust
Killian, Elmarié
South Africa, Pretoria
University of Pretoria
Meharg, Andrew A.
United Kingdom, Aberdeen
University of Aberdeen
Patra, Ramesh Chandra
India, Bareilly
Indian Veterinary Research Institute
Saini, Mohini
India, Bareilly
Indian Veterinary Research Institute
Wolter, Kerri
South Africa, Hartbeespoort
De Wildt Cheetah and Wildlife Trust
Statistics
Citations: 226
Authors: 17
Affiliations: 8
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1371/journal.pbio.0040066
ISSN:
15457885
e-ISSN:
15457885
Research Areas
Health System And Policy