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Andrew Routh - Chief Veterinary Officer
ZSL's chief veterinarian took to the sofa to discuss the amazing vulture conservation work he has been involved in
Andrew is currently involved with a team of people who are trying to restore the vulture populations in India. Years ago vultures would be a regular sight flying over head however in 1999 it was noted that there had been a significant decline in numbers, in fact for one species it was thought that there is now only 0.03% of the original population left.
ZSL helped with investigating the cause of the decline. Pathology reports showed most of the birds had died from kidney failure and those birds that had died from kidney failure were also found to have a drug called diclofenac in their bodies.
Diclofenac was originally used as an anti-inflammatory drug for humans and then had started to be used for veterinary treatment more recently. As cows aren’t eaten in India and only farmed for their milk, when they die they are often just left in the fields or put in cattle dumps as the vultures would then come and clean everything up. Although diclofenac is perfectly safe to use for cattle it was not safe for the vultures and therefore once the vultures consumed from a cow that had taken the drug it would cause kidney failure and death in the vulture.
Once the cause of the problem was determined research could then be done to find an alternative to using diclofenac in agriculture. The finding of a viable alternative tied in with legislation that banned the manufacture of diclofenac. Alternative drugs are being offered to farmers and distributors in exchange for their stores of diclofenac. However there is some evidence of vultures still being poisoned by diclofenac that was produced before the ban and the population numbers still fall.
There are also other factors that are causing vultures to be injured or killed such as flying into power cables, being shot around army bases as they damage planes if they have collisions with them and also from the Indian kite festival. Previously these deaths would have been welfare issues only but with the vulture decline they are now also a conservation problem.
The kite festival happens all over India and involves a huge number of people flying kites up to 50-100 meters in the air. The vultures can fly into the kite strings, which can cut through soft tissue, and hundreds of birds get injured in this way. ZSL has strong links with a rescue organisation in Ahmedabad and their rapid veterinary actions means that in that area vulture mortality from kite-string injuries is virtually zero. The injuries to the wings are so severe that the birds cannot be released back to the wild.
The injured vultures are taken to breeding centres across India and treated. These injured birds cannot be released back into the wild but can then be part of a breeding program for the vultures. ZSL and its partners aims to hold 200-300 birds of each of the three species of vulture that were affected so that breeding colonies can be built up. They can then look into reintroducing the vultures once the drug problem has been resolved.
