In Nepal, New Restaurant Boasts Antibiotic-Free Buffet - For Vultures - New Scientist

[hatrack]

The number of rare vultures in one of Nepal's conservation sites has nearly doubled after a special feeding facility started serving "drug-free", safe carcasses to the birds, a conservation group says.

Vulture numbers have plummeted catastrophically in south Asia since the 1990s. Scientists were flummoxed by the mysterious mass die-off of the scavenging birds until researchers linked the deaths to vultures eating dead cattle treated with the anti-inflammatory drug, diclofenac, in 1994.

The scientists found that small doses of the drug, given to cattle to treat injury, caused kidney damage and death in vultures.

Diclofenac was responsible for the decline of two species: the white-rumped vulture (Gyps bengalensis) and the slender-billed vulture (Gyps tenuirostris), from Nepal and the region, according to leading local conservation group, Bird Conservation Nepal (BCN).

EDIT

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn13147-healthy-restaurant-boosts-rare-vultures-in-nepal.html

[dbackjon]

1. Excellent news!