Project targets 2016 for Asian vultures release

By Mark KinverEnvironment reporter, BBC News

After the devastation wrought by a drug on Asian vulture populations, a project hopes to begin releasing captive-bred birds into the wild by 2016.

The Saving Asia's Vultures from Extinction (Save) programme says it plans to release up to 25 birds into a 30,000-sq-km drug-free "safe zone".

Diclofenac - used by vets on cattle - was identified as causing a crash in vulture numbers and banned by India.

But, says Save, the version for human use is still given illegally to cattle.

Diclofenac was banned for use by vets and farmers in 2006 because of its effect on vultures that feed on livestock carcasses.

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Pakistan vultures have turned the corner after Diclofenac ban

Peregrine Fund study shows that the ban on toxic veterinary drug diclofenac is effective in addressing Asian vulture crisis

October 2012. The number of critically endangered Long-billed Vultures in Pakistan is beginning to recover, thanks to a ban on the use of diclofenac, a veterinary drug that is toxic to vultures, according to a new study by The Peregrine Fund.

99% drop in numbers
Before the 2006 ban, vulture populations in Pakistan, India, and Nepal had dropped by up to 99%. Diclofenac, then a new drug in the veterinary market, was widely used to treat ailing cattle and other livestock, but vultures began dying by the thousands. The birds suffered renal failure after ingesting diclofenac-treated carcasses that had been left in the fields for scavengers.

52% increase after the ban
By 2008, two years after the ban, breeding populations of the Long-billed Vulture at the study sites in Pakistan had increased by up to 52%, the study shows.

"Our results demonstrate for the first time since the onset of the Asian vulture crisis that the ban on veterinary diclofenac is an effective management tool for reversing Long-billed Vulture population declines in the study area," the authors said.

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/pakistan-vultures.html