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Drug ban lifeline for doomed vultures
The extinction threat facing vultures in India has been lifted by a ban on the drug responsible for the death of millions of the birds. The Indian government has ordered all of the country's drug companies to halt production and sale of the anti-inflammatory livestock treatment diclofenac within three months. Pharmaceutical firms have been told to instead promote meloxicam, an alternative to diclofenac, which has been proved by scientists from the RSPB and elsewhere to be safe for vultures.
Mark Avery, Director of Conservation at the RSPB said: "Saving Asian vultures is now more than possible because of this ban. The Indian government's decision is an historic and priceless one and a move that will be hugely significant for the millions of people in Asia for whom vultures are absolutely indispensable."
Chris Bowden, Head of the RSPB's Asian Vulture Programme, said: "This ban is exceptionally good news and the crucial step we have all been looking for. The decline of vultures has been quicker than any other wild bird including the dodo and we know what happened to them. Making diclofenac illegal and removing it from shop shelves are the next steps and we don't yet know how big a job the latter will be. But this ban is a massive first step towards halting the vultures' decline and may well be the turning point in saving them from outright extinction."
The Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) has been at the forefront of the campaign for a diclofenac ban. Director Dr Asad Rahmani said: "This is some of the best news of my life and shows that good scientific evidence has been accepted by the Indian Government. This is a very important step. Now we need to see that implementation is effective and that there is awareness of the problem at all levels."
Richard Cuthbert who leads the RSPB's Vulture Programme Research, said: "A diclofenac ban is fantastic news for vultures and has been made possible through the hard work of scientists from the RSPB, India and South Africa in finding that meloxicam is a safe alternative to diclofenac. Making sure meloxicam is rapidly introduced is now the critical step to saving India's vultures."
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