The population of vultures has declined due to the use of painkiller medicine given to animals, which caused kidney failure in vultures that consumed the treated animals. This medicine was banned in India in 2006.
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The population of vultures has declined due to the use of painkiller medicine given to animals, which caused kidney failure in vultures that consumed the treated animals. This medicine was banned in India in 2006.
It’s genuinely depressing. In a literal sense, vultures were controlling the ecosystem. Then a stupid medication for sick animals began to kill them. All because the negative effects on the environment were not considered. They are worthy of better.
Cows were medicated by humans. Cows were consumed by vultures. The vultures perished.
Diclofenac is the medication. extremely lethal to birds.
Trash is now accumulating and there are more stray dogs. Whoops.
Sure, let’s just give cows a drug that makes vultures fly. Fantastic concept. In any case, who needs natural garbage collectors? They weren’t actually protecting us from rabies, illness, or anything.
Basically, like eco janitors, vultures used to be out here vibin’ and cleaning up dead animals. However, after people began using this medication on cows, vultures that consumed the cows began to die. The drug seriously damaged their internal organs. For the birds, it’s a big L.
Because people began giving cows the medication diclofenac, vultures are going extinct. For cows, it’s okay, but when vultures consume the dead cows, it damages their kidneys and causes their death. For them, it’s literally poisonous. This is not what nature asked for.
Back in the day, vultures were the unsung heroes of the ecosystem. Theyโd scoop up dead animals, keeping things clean and stopping disease outbreaks. But then, humans introduced this drug called diclofenac for treating livestock. Sounds legit for cows and stuff, but it turned out to be a total disaster for our feathered friends.
When vultures fed on carcasses of animals treated with diclofenac, it caused fatal kidney failuresโa condition we now call visceral gout. Basically, the drug messes up their system so badly that they literally drop dead. This crisis really hit hard in South Asia (think India, Pakistan, and Nepal) around the 1990s, slashing vulture numbers by crazy amounts.
Now, hereโs the kicker: in 2006, India decided to flip the script and banned diclofenac for veterinary use. Instead, they pushed for safer alternatives like meloxicam, which donโt have the same toxic effects on vultures. But enforcing this ban has been a whole other struggle. Some folks still sneak in human versions of the drug for animals, so vultures are still getting hit with these dangerous substances.
And it doesnโt stop at just diclofenac. Other NSAIDs like aceclofenac and ketoprofen are also out there wreaking havoc on their health. With fewer vultures in the skies, natureโs cleanup crew is essentially getting ghostedโleading to an uptick in feral dogs and other scavengers that can spread diseases like rabies.
In short, the whole decline stems from this one drug turning a natural process into a public health crisis. Itโs a wild mix of human error, enforcement struggles, and a cascade of ecological consequences. The story of the vultures is a major lesson on how one small change in how we handle livestock meds can ripple out and shake up an entire ecosystem.