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Safe alternatives
The problems of diclofenac have identified the need to ban the veterinary use of this drug within the Indian sub-continent. However, diclofenac is an important drug for veterinarians and farmers in Asia, where livestock need to be treated for symptoms of pain, fever and inflammation. In order to successfully ban diclofenac it is vital to provide a vulture safe alternative drug that can be widely introduced as a replacement for diclofenac.
Research into a safe alternative drug has being undertaken by the RSPB, in collaboration with the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), the Bombay Natural History Society and the Faculty of Veterinary Science at the University of Pretoria (South Africa) and the Rhino & Lion Wildlife Conservation's Vulture Programme. In order to help identify safe alternatives we first undertaken a questionnaire survey of veterinarians at zoos, raptor rehabilitation centres and raptors collections, asking them for evidence of the safety of toxicity of Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drugs (NSAIDs--the class of drugs that diclofenac belongs to). These results identified meloxicam as a potential safe drug, as well as raising safety concerns for the NSAIDs carprofen, flunixin and ketoprofen (see Cuthbert et al 2006).
Detailed and intensive safety testing on the safety of meloxicam was then undertaken on captive non-releasable African white-backed vultures, an abundant and non-threatened species widely distributed across Africa. Visits were also made by researchers from BNHS and IVRI in India in order to work closely with this project. After testing meloxicam, at increasing doses with these captive birds, a larger number of wild African white-backed vultures were captured in Namibia, through the assistance Maria and Jörg Diekmann, and the Rare and Endangered Species Trust (REST). Over a long weekend, Maria and Jörg with the assistance of a large group of experienced and keen volunteers successfully captured 66 African white-backed vultures. A total of 20 of these birds were treated with meloxicam at the estimated maximum level of exposure that vulture could potentially encounter this drug (estimated from a bird consuming 1 kg of liver tissue from a cow dieing shortly after a veterinary dose of meloxicam). All of the birds survived and their blood parameters and behaviour was normal. A paper detailing the results of this safety testing work was published in early 2006 (Swan et al 2006), helping provide crucial momentum to the advocacy programme's efforts to ban diclofenac, by providing vets with a vulture safe alternative to diclofenac.
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