Trends in the availability of the vulture-toxic drug, diclofenac, and other NSAIDs in South Asia, as revealed by covert pharmacy surveys

作者：Toby H. Galligan, John W. Mallord, Vibhu Prakash, Krishna Prasad Bhusal, A. Alam, FERGUS M. ANTHONY, Ruchi Dave, ALKA DUBE, Kartik Shastri, Yogesh Kumar, Nikita Prakash, Sachin Ranade, Rohan Shringarpure, Devendra Chapagain, ISHWARY P. CHAUDHARY, ANKIT B. JOSHI, Khadananda Paudel, TARIK KABIR, Sakib Ahmed, KAZI Z. AZMIRI, Richard Cuthbert, Christopher G. R. Bowden, Rhys E. Green · 发表于：Bird Conservation International · 年份：2020 · DOI：10.1017/s0959270920000477 · 被引用次数：83 · 研究领域：Turtle Biology and Conservation、Bird parasitology and diseases、Avian ecology and behavior

Summary The catastrophic declines of three species of ‘Critically Endangered’ Gyps vultures in South Asia were caused by unintentional poisoning by the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) diclofenac. Despite a ban on its veterinary use in 2006 (India, Nepal, Pakistan) and 2010 (Bangladesh), residues of diclofenac have continued to be found in cattle carcasses and in dead wild vultures. Another NSAID, meloxicam, has been shown to be safe to vultures. From 2012 to 2018, we undertook covert surveys of pharmacies in India, Nepal and Bangladesh to investigate the availability and prevalence of NSAIDs for the treatment of livestock. The purpose of the study was to establish whether diclofenac continued to be sold for veterinary use, whether the availability of meloxicam had increased and to determine which other veterinary NSAIDs were available. The availability of diclofenac declined in all three countries, virtually disappearing from pharmacies in Nepal and Bangladesh, highlighting the advances made in these two countries to reduce this threat to vultures. In India, diclofenac still accounted for 10–46% of all NSAIDs offered for sale for livestock treatment in 2017, suggesting weak enforcement of existing regulations and a continued high risk to vultures. Availability of meloxicam increased in all countries and was the most common veterinary NSAID in Nepal (89.9% in 2017). Although the most widely available NSAID in India in 2017, meloxicam accounted for only 32% of prod...