India calls for ban on vulture-killing drug
Friday, 22 Aug 2008 00:01
Diclofenac has killed millions of vultures
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The Indian government has called for a crackdown on companies selling a drug which has led to the death of millions of vultures.
The drug controller general of India, Dr Surinder Singh, issued an open letter warning over 70 firms not to use the veterinary form of diclofenac and to mark human diclofenac containers as "not for veterinary use".
The manufacture of veterinary diclofenac was outlawed two years ago after it was proved its use on livestock lead to the death of vultures.
A report published earlier this year suggested that three species of Asian vulture could be extinct within the next ten years unless the use of diclofenac on cattle was stopped.
Dr Nita Shah, head of the Vulture Advocacy Programme at the Bombay Natural History Society, welcomed the move, saying: "This step by the Indian government demonstrates its determination to tackle the vulture crisis and we are very hopeful that other measures will follow.
"Measures that make veterinary and human diclofenac less easy to use are crucial if we are to save these birds. Steps to make meloxicam, which is just as effective in treating livestock, more widely available are just as important."
In his open letter, Dr Singh said the companies should implement the ban on veterinary diclofenac and properly label containers of the human variety.
In May 2006, the Indian government declared that firms should stop making and marketing diclofenac.
Such action, Dr Singh declared, would "help in saving [the] vulture population and ecological balance in [the] animal world".
"However... diclofenac formulation for veterinary use is still in circulation and there are rolling over/leakage of human diclofenac formulations into [the] veterinary sector."