As reported in the Indian press, ‘The Hindu’ – The office of the Director of Drugs Control, Tamil Nadu has registered over 100 cases against suppliers, distributors, manufacturers, and retailers of diclofenac. Since the 2006 ban of veterinary diclofenac, and the vial size restriction to 3ml needed for human use, this is the first time…

The ultimate goal of any breeding programme involving critically endangered species is to be able to supplement wild populations to prevent their extinction. But within this overall aim, there are several other criteria that ideally need to be met. These include released birds behaving in ways similar to their wild counterparts; to successfully breed, perhaps…

A paper published in the current issue of Science of the Total Environment (here) confirms that the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), nimesulide, is toxic to vultures, following safety testing of the drug on vultures in South Africa. Since the banning of veterinary diclofenac, the NSAID which drove three species of Gyps vultures to near-extinction in…

SAVE announces the addition of BirdLife International as its latest member, and Core Partner. BirdLife has always been closely associated and supportive of SAVE, but this fully recognises the important role it plays. Vinayagan Dharmarajah, the Asia regional director (and long-term vulture fan) based in Singapore has become increasingly involved in various aspects of SAVE…

The recovery of populations of two Critically Endangered vulture species in Nepal is linked directly to progress in removing the toxic drug diclofenac from veterinary use in Nepal’s Vulture Safe Zone (VSZ). Action in this VSZ has raised public awareness about the hazard posed to vultures by the toxic non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug when it is…

The Union Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change, Shri Bhupender Yadav,  awarded Dr Vibhu Prakash of the Bombay Natural History Society the Directors Prani Mitra Award 2021 for his role in vulture conservation. The award is for the ex-situ work in particular, and was made in the presence of Shri Kiritsinh Rana, Hon’ble Minister…

Ten wild white-rumped vultures have been caught, tagged and released, and eight more birds from the breeding centre were tagged and released, by the Government of Nepal, Bird Conservation Nepal (BCN) and other conservation organisations. Two of the released birds were captive-bred juveniles, and six were captive-reared adults. BCN team tagging and ringing the birds…

We are very excited that this year’s Annual SAVE meeting (Our 11th AGM) will take place on Thursday 2nd December and is now open for registration. The programme includes reports from the six partner countries, short talks from some of our well-known vulture specialists, and a special Vulture Safe Zone announcement! Please click here to…

In 2003, the veterinary use of diclofenac to treat cattle was discovered to be the cause of catastrophic vulture declines across South Asia. There was an urgent need to identify alternative, safe NSAIDs for veterinary use. The NSAID meloxicam was tested in 2006 and found to be both safe to vultures and effective in treating…

An important paper published recently documents the deaths of four endangered vultures in Gujarat, India with the evidence clearly indicating that they died of gout, typical of NSAID (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug) poisoning, and where nimesulide was detected at high levels in the vulture tissues. Nimesulide, an increasingly popular veterinary painkiller and NSAID used for treating cattle…