Oryx Study showed that Availability of Diclofenac despite Ban hit Vulture Population

According to a study published in the Oryx, a leading international scientific journal of conservation, and reported by BirdLife International, widely-available diclofenac was being purchased by Indian farmers illegally in conveniently large bottles to treat their cattle. The drug formulated for veterinary use however continues to be manufactured after a ban was declared in 2006 owing to its toxicity to critically endangered vultures.

According to the study over a third of the Indian pharmacies continue to sell to livestock farmers the banned killer drug, diclofenac, responsible for the dramatic fall in vulture population in the country.

The research was conducted in over 250 veterinary and general pharmacy shops in 11 Indian States from November 2007 to June 2010. The surveyors asked if they could buy non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for treating cattle. The study noted that Diclofenac was recorded in 36 per cent of shops.

Diclofenac is responsible for bringing three South Asian species of Gyps vultures to the brink of extinction. The population crash was first noted in the late 1990s. Nepal and Pakistan also banned the drug in 2006. In 2008 India placed additional restrictions on diclofenac for animal use, with contravention punishable with imprisonment.
The study also showed an increase in meloxicam (in 70 per cent of pharmacies), a drug with very similar therapeutic effects to diclofenac on cattle, but which has been proven to be safe for vultures. Ketoprofen, an alternative that was tested and shown to be deadly to vultures, has still not been banned. It was on sale for veterinary use in 29 per cent of the pharmacies.