Continuing mortality of vultures in India associated with illegal veterinary use of diclofenac and a potential threat from nimesulide

AbstractThe collapse of South Asia's Gyps vulture populations is attributable to the veterinary use of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) diclofenac. Vultures died after feeding on carcasses of recently-medicated animals. The governments of India, Nepal and Pakistan banned the veterinary use of diclofenac in 2006. We analysed results of 62 necropsies and 48 NSAID assays of liver and/or kidney for vultures of five species found dead in India between 2000 and 2012. Visceral gout and diclofenac were detected in vultures from nine states and three species: Gyps bengalensis, Gyps indicus and Gyps himalayensis. Visceral gout was found in every vulture carcass in which a measurable level of diclofenac was detected. Meloxicam, an NSAID of low toxicity to vultures, was found in two vultures and nimesulide in five vultures. Nimesulide at elevated tissue concentrations was associated with visceral gout in four of these cases, always without diclofenac, suggesting that nimesulide may have similar toxic effects to those of diclofenac. Residues of meloxicam on its own were never associated with visceral gout. The proportion of Gyps vultures found dead in the wild in India with measurable levels of diclofenac in their tissues showed a modest and non-significant decline since the ban on the veterinary use of diclofenac. The prevalence of visceral gout declined less, probably because some cases of visceral gout from 2008 onwards were associated with nimesulide rather than diclofenac. Veterinary use of nimesulide is a potential threat to the recovery of vulture populations.

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Asian Vultures : White-rumped Vulture Gyps bengalensis, Indian Vulture Gyps indicus, Slender-billed Vulture Gyps tenuirostris

Facing Extinction : The world’s rarest birds and the race to save them ◽

10.5040/9781472597663.ch-017 ◽

2014 ◽

Keyword(s):

Gyps Indicus ◽

Gyps Bengalensis

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Toxic effects of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac

Aquatic Toxicology ◽

10.1016/j.aquatox.2004.03.014 ◽

2004 ◽

Vol 68 (2) ◽

pp. 141-150 ◽

Cited By ~ 487

Author(s):

J. Schwaiger ◽

H. Ferling ◽

U. Mallow ◽

H. Wintermayr ◽

R.D. Negele

Keyword(s):

Toxic Effects ◽

Inflammatory Drug ◽

Anti Inflammatory

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Clinical Evaluation of Piperacillin in Bronchopulmonary Infection

Journal of International Medical Research ◽

10.1177/030006058100900406 ◽

1981 ◽

Vol 9 (4) ◽

pp. 268-273 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

G E Marlin ◽

K R Burgess ◽

P J Thompson

Keyword(s):

Renal Failure ◽

Renal Function ◽

Chronic Renal Failure ◽

Renal Impairment ◽

Significant Decline ◽

Bronchial Disease ◽

Beneficial Response ◽

Bronchopulmonary Infection ◽

Low Toxicity ◽

Bronchial Infection

Piperacillin sodium, a new semi-synthetic penicillin, was administered to eleven patients with acute bronchial infection and to fourteen patients with pneumonia. Piperacillin dosage was either 8 g/day (twenty-one patients) or 16 g/day (four patients) intravenously for periods of between 5 and 15 days. Clinical assessment was determined by diminution of sputum purulence, eradication of pathogen from sputum, clinical and radiological progress. There was a beneficial response in all but six patients, two of whom had severe chronic infective bronchial disease and four had underlying pulmonary malignancy. The low toxicity of piperacillin was confirmed, although one patient with chronic renal failure had a significant decline in renal function. Dosage should be reduced inpatients with renal impairment.

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Recent changes in populations of Critically Endangered Gyps vultures in India

Bird Conservation International ◽

10.1017/s0959270917000545 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 29 (1) ◽

pp. 55-70 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

VIBHU PRAKASH ◽

TOBY H. GALLIGAN ◽

SOUMYA S. CHAKRABORTY ◽

RUCHI DAVE ◽

MANDAR D. KULKARNI ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Confidence Interval ◽

Indian Subcontinent ◽

Population Trends ◽

Critically Endangered ◽

Rapid Decline ◽

Eastern India ◽

Inflammatory Drug ◽

Low Level ◽

North Eastern ◽

Gyps Bengalensis

SummaryPopulations of the White-rumped Vulture Gyps bengalensis, Indian Vulture G. indicus and Slender-billed Vulture G. tenuirostris declined rapidly during the mid-1990s all over their ranges in the Indian subcontinent because of poisoning due to veterinary use of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac. This paper reports results from the latest in a series of road transect surveys conducted across northern, central, western and north-eastern India since the early 1990s. Results from the seven comparable surveys now available were analysed to estimate recent population trends. Populations of all three species of vulture remained at a low level. The previously rapid decline of White-rumped Vulture has slowed and may have reversed since the ban on veterinary use of diclofenac in India in 2006. A few thousand of this species, possibly up to the low tens of thousands, remained in India in 2015. The population of Indian Vulture continued to decline, though probably at a much slower rate than in the 1990s. This remains the most numerous of the three species in India with about 12,000 individuals in 2015 and a confidence interval ranging from a few thousands to a few tens of thousands. The trend in the rarest species, Slender-billed Vulture, which probably numbers not much more than 1,000 individuals in India, cannot be determined reliably.

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Are any populations 'safe'? Unexpected reproductive decline in a population of Tasmanian devils free of devil facial tumour disease

Wildlife Research ◽

10.1071/wr16234 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 45 (1) ◽

pp. 31 ◽

Cited By ~ 7

Author(s):

K. A. Farquharson ◽

R. M. Gooley ◽

S. Fox ◽

S. J. Huxtable ◽

K. Belov ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Conservation Management ◽

Southern Oscillation ◽

Demographic Data ◽

Management Strategies ◽

Natural Populations ◽

Significant Decline ◽

Tasmanian Devil ◽

Devil Facial Tumour Disease ◽

In The Wild ◽

Reproductive Rates

Context Conservation management relies on baseline demographic data of natural populations. For Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii), threatened in the wild by two fatal and transmissible cancers (devil facial tumour disease DFTD: DFT1 and DFT2), understanding the characteristics of healthy populations is crucial for developing adaptive management strategies to bolster populations in the wild. Aims Our analysis aims to evaluate contemporary reproductive rates for wild, DFTD-free Tasmanian devil populations, and to provide a baseline with which to compare the outcome of current translocation activities. Methods We analysed 8 years of field-trapping data, including demographics and reproductive rates, across 2004–16, from the largest known DFTD-free remnant population at Woolnorth, Tasmania. Key results Surprisingly, we found a dramatic and statistically significant decline in female breeding rate when comparing data collected from 2004–2009 with data from 2014–2016. Unfortunately we do not have any data from the intermediate years. This decline in breeding rate was accompanied by a subtle but statistically significant decline in litter sizes. These changes were not associated with a change in body condition over the same period. Furthermore, we could not attribute the decline in breeding to a change in population size or sex ratio. Preliminary analysis suggested a possible association between annual breeding rate and coarse measures of environmental variation (Southern Oscillation Index), but any mechanistic associations are yet to be determined. Conclusions The decline in breeding rates was unexpected, so further monitoring and investigation into potential environmental and/or biological reasons for the decline in breeding rate are recommended before the arrival of DFTD at Woolnorth. Implications Our results provide valuable data to support the conservation management of Tasmanian devils in their native range. They also highlight the importance of continued monitoring of ‘safe’ populations, in the face of significant threats elsewhere.

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Toxicity of diclofenac to Gyps vultures

Biology Letters ◽

10.1098/rsbl.2005.0425 ◽

2006 ◽

Vol 2 (2) ◽

pp. 279-282 ◽

Cited By ~ 107

Author(s):

Gerry E Swan ◽

Richard Cuthbert ◽

Miguel Quevedo ◽

Rhys E Green ◽

Deborah J Pain ◽

...

Keyword(s):

South Asia ◽

Critically Endangered ◽

Veterinary Drug ◽

Safety Testing ◽

Gyps Fulvus ◽

Gyps Indicus ◽

Gyps Bengalensis ◽

Alternative Drugs

Three endemic vulture species Gyps bengalensis , Gyps indicus and Gyps tenuirostris are critically endangered following dramatic declines in South Asia resulting from exposure to diclofenac, a veterinary drug present in the livestock carcasses that they scavenge. Diclofenac is widely used globally and could present a risk to Gyps species from other regions. In this study, we test the toxicity of diclofenac to a Eurasian ( Gyps fulvus ) and an African ( Gyps africanus ) species, neither of which is threatened. A dose of 0.8 mg kg −1 of diclofenac was highly toxic to both species, indicating that they are at least as sensitive to diclofenac as G. bengalensis , for which we estimate an LD 50 of 0.1–0.2 mg kg −1 . We suggest that diclofenac is likely to be toxic to all eight Gyps species, and that G. africanus , which is phylogenetically close to G. bengalensis , would be a suitable surrogate for the safety testing of alternative drugs to diclofenac.

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An Overview of Vulture Conservation in Nepal

The Initiation ◽

10.3126/init.v3i0.2502 ◽

1970 ◽

Vol 3 ◽

pp. 114-118

Author(s):

Ishana Thapa

Keyword(s):

Veterinary Drug ◽

Rapid Decline ◽

In The Wild ◽

Local Extinctions ◽

Vulture Conservation ◽

Chitwan National Park ◽

Gyps Bengalensis ◽

Conservation Breeding ◽

Grave Danger

Two species of vulture White-rumped Gyps bengalensis and Slender-billed G. tenuirostris are in grave danger of extinction with rapid decline throughout their ranges in Nepal with the complete loss of breeding colonies and local extinctions increasingly taking place. Nepal Government has already banned veterinary drug diclofenac which is the major cause of decline due to poisoning in food supply. Meloxicam has been widely promoted as the safe replacement of Diclofenac. Captive population have been established at Kasara, Chitwan National Park for future reintroduction. To reduce mortality in the wild in situ measures have been initiated through establishment of vulture restaurants as safe feeding sites. Key Words: Critically endangered, Diclofenac, Meloxicam, Conservation, Breeding centre, Vulture restaurant DOI: 10.3126/init.v3i0.2502 The Initiation Vol.3 2009 p.114-118

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Recovery of vulture population in roosting and scavenging areas of Bastar and Bijapur, Chhattisgarh, India

Journal of Threatened Taxa ◽

10.11609/jott.7446.13.13.19956-19963 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 13 (13) ◽

pp. 19956-19963

Author(s):

Sushil Kumar Dutta ◽

Muntaz Khan ◽

P.R.S. Nagi ◽

Santosh Durgam ◽

Surabhi Dutta

Keyword(s):

Large Scale ◽

The State ◽

Population Recovery ◽

Sympatric Populations ◽

First Report ◽

Gyps Indicus ◽

Gyps Bengalensis ◽

Population Ratio

Chhattisgarh is home to seven of the nine vulture species in India. One reason for this high vulture diversity is the presence of large herds of bovines numbering over 11 million individuals (ratio of human to bovine population is approximately 0.38), from which carcasses are disposed off in the open for scavengers. The late 1990s saw large scale decimation of vulture population, and since then there have been few studies with no sighting estimates available. In this study, concurrent sighting records were collected from different locations of southern Chhattisgarh and corroborated to develop conservative sighting estimates for sympatric populations of Gyps bengalensis and Gyps indicus. We present the first report on population recovery, with an estimated 30–35 Gyps bengalensis & 20–25 Gyps indicus in/ around Rudraram of Bijapur and 18 Gyps bengalensis & five Gyps indicus at Jamguda village of Bastar. Krishna Swami Gutta hill is identified as a nesting-roosting habitat for both species, for which six scavenging areas were identified in Bastar and Bijapur districts. The human/bovine population ratio for Bastar is 0.4, similar to the state ratio, while in Bijapur the ratio is 1.07, which justifies considering Bijapur as a conservation refuge. The few vultures that survived the diclofenac catastrophe in wild habitats most likely consumed wildlife carcasses that sustained a residual population. In these areas, the age-old practise of disposing off dead domesticated bovines away from settlements near reserve forests may also have supported the recovery of vulture population.

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The Amplification Threat Posed by Publicly Reachable BACnet Devices

Journal of Cyber Security and Mobility ◽

10.13052/2245-1439.614 ◽

2017 ◽

Author(s):

Oliver Gasser ◽

Quirin Scheitle ◽

Benedikt Rudolph ◽

Carl Denis ◽

Nadja Schricker ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Denial Of Service ◽

Internet Security ◽

Potential Threat ◽

Denial Of Service Attack ◽

Service Attack ◽

Automation And Control ◽

In The Wild ◽

Wide Scale ◽

Passive Measurements ◽

And Control

In a connected world Internet security is becoming increasingly important. Attacks, which are frequently executed by botnets, can impact people in their everyday life. A ubiquitous kind of attack is the amplification attack, a special type of Denial-of-Service attack. Several protocols such as DNS, NTP, and SNMP are known to be vulnerable to amplification attacks when security practices are not followed. In this work we evaluate the vulnerability of BACnet, a building automation and control protocol, to amplification attacks. To assess BACnet’s vulnerability we conduct active traffic measurements on an Internet-wide scale. We find 16 485 BACnet devices, the largest number to date. Additionally, more than 14 k of these devices can be misused as amplifiers, with some generating amplification factors up to 120. To remediate this potential threat we employ a vulnerability notification campaign in close coordination with a CERT. We assess the success of the campaign and find that the number of publicly reachable BACnet devices decreased only slightly. Additionally, we employ passive measurements to attribute the majority of BACnet traffic in the wild to scanning projects. Finally, we also give suggestions to thwart the amplification attack potential of BACnet.

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