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	What is the cost of losing India's vultures? A new paper has attempted to assess the economic cost of losing vultures across India. The millions of vultures in India formerly played a crucial role in disposing of thousands of tonnes of carcasses, however with the collapse in vulture numbers this carcass disposal system is no longer viable. The result is that vulture declines have been associated with an increase in feral dog populations across the region. The increase in dog numbers and increase in rotting animal carcasses has major implications for the potential risk of both human and animal diseases, including diseases such as anthrax, brucellosis and TB. Of major concern is the likelihood that the increasing dog population is furthering the spread of rabies in the region. India has the highest incidence of rabies in the World (c. 60% of all documented cases) and of the 20,000 cases each year 96% of these are a result of dog bites. The paper assess the economic cost of the likely increase in rabies cases and rabies prevention measures that have had to be implemented with the loss of vultures. Over the 14 year period from 1993-2006 the estimated total cost of the health costs attributable to vulture declines is a staggering US$ 34 billion. A pdf of the paper is downloadable at this link The abstract and paper details are listed below:


	E C O L O G I C A L E C O N O M I C S ( 2 0 0 8 ) doi:10.1016/j.ecolecon.2008.04.020 Counting the cost of vulture decline--An appraisal of the human health and other benefits of vultures in India Anil Markandya a,b, Tim Taylor a, Alberto Longo c, M.N. Murty d, S. Murty d, K. Dhavala d A University of Bath, UK B FEEM, Italy C Queen's University Belfast, UK D Institute of Economic Growth, New Delhi, India A B S T R A C T Widespread use of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) diclofenac to treat livestock has resulted in dramatic declines in the populations of vultures across India. This has become an issue of considerable concern as vultures are a keystone species and their decline has a range of socio-economic, as well as cultural and biodiversity impacts. In this paper, we review these impacts and estimate in detail the economic cost of one of them: the human health impacts of the vulture decline. Livestock carcasses provide the main food supply for vultures, and are also eaten by dogs. Dogs are the main source of rabies in humans in India, and their populations have increased substantially in parallel with the vulture decline. The potential human health impact of rabies associated with the vulture decline is found to be significant. This, and a wide range of other impacts suggest that significant resources should be put into (1) testing of pharmaceutical products to ensure that similar situations are not repeated, (2) helping vulture populations to recover through the use of alternative drugs to diclofenac that are of low toxicity to vultures, and (3) through conservation breeding programmes.