Ban diclofenac to save vultures: Zoologists
Zoologists yesterday demanded immediate banning of the diclofenac that has brought vultures to the brink of extinction as the scavengers die after feeding on carcasses of cattle treated with the anti-inflammatory drug.
Forest department, Wild Life Trust of Bangladesh and Bangladesh Bird Club organised the meeting in the capital.
Speaking at the meeting, noted ornithologist Enam Ul Haque said, unlike any other animal, vultures have the capacity to digest the microbes which cause anthrax, foot-and-mouth disease, locally known as khura and tuberculosis.
Environment Secretary Mihir Kanti Majumder said the Environment and Forest Ministry would send a letter to the government to deregister the drug.
“If India and Nepal can ban the drug, why shouldn't we?” he asked.
He also said the forest department will be taking initiatives to conserve taller trees which are the habitats of vultures.
Vultures show symptoms of "neck dropping" after eating carcasses of cattle formerly treated with diclofenac, and die within a few days, said experts.
Diclofenac is widely used in human medicine globally, and was introduced to the veterinary market in the Indian subcontinent in early 1990s.
Experts said oriental vultures are disappearing so fast that their population dropped by 95 percent in Bangladesh in the last two decades.
India and Nepal banned the drug and opted for a safe substitute, meloxicam.
Professor Anwarul Islam of Zoology department of Dhaka University read out the keynote paper at the meeting chaired by Chief Conservator of Forest, Ishtiak Uddin.
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