Current policies in Europe and South Asia do not prevent veterinary use of drugs toxic to vultures

Abstract

Population declines of vultures of the genus Gyps in the Indian Subcontinent in the 1990s and 2000s were among the most rapid global population declines recorded for any bird species. Multiple lines of evidence identified veterinary treatment of cattle with the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) diclofenac as the principal cause of the vulture population crash. Diclofenac causes kidney failure and death within a few days of a vulture scavenging the carcass of a recently treated cow. Despite coordinated regulatory action by governments to ban veterinary diclofenac in South Asia, enforcement has been incomplete in many areas. Progress in preventing the veterinary use of other NSAIDs now also known to be vulture-toxic has been slow. A mosaic of inconsistent licensing processes currently exists across South Asian vulture range states, leading to issues with successful policy implementation, legitimacy and effectiveness. At present, mandatory safety testing to ensure NSAIDs already in use or proposed for use are vulture-safe is not part of drug licensing procedures in any vulture range state. In 2021, Bangladesh became the first country to ban a vulture-toxic NSAID, in addition to diclofenac, by banning veterinary use of ketoprofen. In 2023, India became the second country to take this step when the government announced a ban on veterinary aceclofenac and ketoprofen. This government action in India may have been triggered by a recent legal challenge. Despite its veterinary use now being banned in South Asian and the Middle Eastern countries, diclofenac has been authorised for sale since 2013 as a veterinary drug in Spain, even though Spain holds 90% of the vulture population of Europe. The European Commission's decision to leave the authorisation of this drug to Member States is at odds with a central pillar of environmental law in the European Union (EU): the precautionary principle. Furthermore, this approach is not consistent with the stringent standards and burden of proof applied to the licensing of EU plant protection products. Solution. A solution to this lack of protection of Gyps vulture populations is for regulatory regimes for veterinary NSAIDs to be augmented.