Carl
Some good news published on the VCF website as another alternative drug has been found that doesn’t poison vultures…
Experts have been trying to identify another vulture-safe NSAID for years now, but with no luck. So, it is with great enthusiasm that a systematic safety testing study has finally identified tolfenamic acid as the second confirmed vulture-safe NSAID after Meloxicam. The study, led by the Indian Veterinary Research Institute (IVRI), the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB), gave doses of tolfenamic acid by oral gavage to a total of 38 wild-caught Himalayan Griffon Vultures, along with single captive White-rumped and Long-billed Vultures from the conservation breeding population. The doses represented the maximum possible level that birds would encounter when feeding on carcasses in the wild, which was calculated by diclofenac concentrations found in cattle carcasses in India. In addition, researchers fed four Himalayan Griffons with buffalo meat from animals given double the recommended dose of Tolfenamic acid before dying. Although two of them died, all the other vultures survived without an increase in uric acid levels in the blood, which is what typically signifies kidney failure caused by NSAID poisoning.
Second vulture-safe veterinary anti-inflammatory drug identified!
