Every year, International Vulture Awareness Day is celebrated on the first weekend of September. And this year, we can celebrate and highlight that national bans in India have been imposed on two veterinary drugs, known to be toxic to vultures. The RSPB’s Chris Bowden, based out in India takes up the story.
Sometimes, when working towards a policy change, it’s hard to remember when it all started, and then after waiting for years, it suddenly comes through - as a huge relief and surprise! We just had one such eureka moment last month when veterinary drug bans for two compounds, aceclofenac and ketoprofen, came through from the most influential source in the region, the Indian Drug Authority – absolutely BRILLIANT!! Our long-term partners, Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS - our BirdLife partner), as well as the Indian Veterinary Research Institute were pivotal in advocating this change and we warmly congratulate them.
The backgroundVultures in Asia experienced a rapid and dramatic population decline in the 1990s. The White-rumped Vulture population dropped by 99.9% while Long-billed and Slender-billed Vultures also fell by over 97%.
Experts from the RSPB became involved in a race to understand why we were losing so many of these birds. It was first discovered by the Peregrine Fund, and quickly confirmed by our team that the anti-inflammatory drug, diclofenac, was behind the declines. The drug, developed for human use, was being widely administered to cattle as a painkiller. But if the cattle died with the drug still in their system, it would enter the vultures’ food chain when they performed their essential job of cleaning up animal carcasses.
In vultures, diclofenac causes gout, kidney failure and death. Since the discovery that diclofenac, and subsequently, that other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), can have such a disastrous impact on vulture populations, the RSPB has worked with partners in South Asia to establish captive populations and make the environment safe for vultures.
Long-billed Vultures – just one of the vulture species affected by diclofenac and other non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. © Mandy West.
Incredible news from IndiaFollowing on from the discovery that diclofenac was having deadly impacts on vulture populations, the drug was first banned for veterinary use in India, Nepal and Pakistan in 2006, with other countries following this important lead. Some seventeen years on we’re now able to celebrate another huge step forward for vulture conservation – India taking up the Bangladesh lead from 2021, and imposing a national ban of ketoprofen, but further adding aceclofenac – both of which have been fully established to be highly toxic to vultures.
The Drugs Technical Advisory Board of India formally recommended national bans of the two veterinary drugs in July and the official legal gazettement came through on 1st August – a very fast and welcome development indeed! These steps came in the form of a statement by the Indian Health Ministry and Central Drugs Standards Control Organisation (CDSCO), followed by a ruling of Delhi High Court in response to a vulture conservation petition submitted by advocate, Gaurav Kumar Bansal.
Both of the newly banned drugs are painkillers, frequently used by vets across the region to treat cattle, used in place of the earlier banned diclofenac. While ketoprofen and aceclofenac have been banned, two more drugs with almost identical properties, meloxicam and tolfenamic acid, have been established as vulture-safe, effective and above all safe alternatives for vets, cattle owners, and pharmaceutical producers. What’s even better is that these drugs are no more expensive than the banned substances.
The move follows many years of safety-testing and peer-reviewed publication of research results by the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and supported by the RSPB’s Conservation Science and wider vulture teams.
More work still to doDespite the great news surrounding the ban on aceclofenac and ketoprofen, some serious problems remain with another non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, nimesulide, which for some reason was not included in this decision. The evidence that nimesulide is toxic to vultures is as strong as that for the other drugs, but despite this, veterinary use of nimesulide remains legal.
Nimesulide use should also be banned, and even more importantly, there are no regulatory procedures in place to prevent new-to-market veterinary drugs that are untested but potentially toxic to vultures being approved for veterinary use tomorrow. Our partners BNHS are actively working on getting this drug ban now. Once the environment is safe following the removal of all these drugs, birds from the captive populations that have been built up over 20 years can start to be released.
The Delhi High Court case also raised the need for nimesulide to be banned and for the safety-testing ahead of licensing veterinary drugs to avoid future threats - so despite this important progress, the case remains pending for those two issues and subject to adjudication.
Meanwhile, let’s commend these important steps, such that other range state governments follow these important examples from India and Bangladesh. We wish all concerned, including the vultures themselves a successful International Vulture Awareness Day, and a safer future.
Working together to save Asia’s vulturesThe RSPB is part of Saving Asia’s Vultures from Extinction (SAVE) – a consortium of like-minded, regional and international organisations, created to oversee and co-ordinate conservation, campaigning and fundraising activities to help the plight of South Asia’s vultures.
Learn more• If you’d like to hear more about bringing India’s vultures back, take a listen to this episode of the Think Wildlife Podcast featuring Chris Bowden.• To read more about the drug bans, and to learn more about saving Asia’s vultures, visit the SAVE website.• Find out more about our work with partners to save vultures.
Continue reading• Saving migratory birds of prey on an international scale - the CMS Raptors MOU• Crossing borders and continents for conservation – the story of the Egyptian Vulture • BirdLife's birthday - everyone welcome!
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