Indian Vultures

[stuart dashper <>]

Dear All,

Thought the following (edited) article in today's Age newspaper may be of
interest.

Cheers
Stuart

                
By DAVID HARRISON and ANDREW MORGAN
                
LONDON
                
Tuesday 5 December 2000
                
An unknown disease is wiping out vultures on the Indian
sub-continent,
                
raising bizarre fears that the spread of bacteria from rotting human
and
                
animal corpses could threaten human health.
                
A recent survey showed that more than 90per cent of the birds had
been
                
wiped out in 17 key areas in the past decade. Entire populations are
now
                
extinct in a number of national parks.
                
The situation is believed to be so grave that in September British
scientists
                
flew to India to discuss the crisis with their Indian counterparts. One
of
                
them, Andrew Cunningham, a wildlife pathologist from London Zoo,
went
                
back last week to continue his efforts to identify the disease, thought
to be a
                
virus that has killed tens of thousands of vultures.
                
Vultures are also important to consume dead animals, and without
this
                
cleaning-up process, bacteria breed rapidly on the carcasses.
Without
                
enough vultures, dogs feed on decaying animal corpses and as a result
are
                
breeding more rapidly, increasing the threat from rabies.
                
Bird expert Peter Wood said griffon vultures were mobile enough to
spread
                
the disease through their range, which extends from the Himalayas to
the
                
Pyrenees, the Alps and South Africa. He said the situation was so
serious
                
that a "healthy captive population" may be the only hope of
keeping the
                
birds going. 
                
The white-backed vulture (Gyps bengalensis) and the long-billed vulture
(G.
                
indicus) - part of the griffon vulture group - have been wiped out in
the
                
India's Keoladeo National Park, near Bharatpur, and are under
serious
                
threat in other areas. They are also thought to have disappeared
from
                
Nepal's Royal Chitwan National Park.
                
Experts are struggling to find an explanation for the loss of the
vultures. An
                
early symptom of the illness is a drooping neck. The birds then
become
                
lethargic and sickly, and die within a few weeks. Scientists say they
have
                
never known vultures, slow-breeding birds normally living for 40 or
50
                
years, to be hit by anything like this. 
               
"This is a serious problem," said Dr Debbie Pain, head of
international
                
research at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. "The
disease is
                
spreading west very rapidly.
                
"The vulture is a big scavenger, especially in Africa, and if we
don't find out
                
what this disease is, and stop it, then we could have a serious
ecological
                
crisis on our hands."
                
The Bombay Natural History Society is working with India's National
                
Institute of Virology to look at possible causes of the vulture's
decline,
                
whether vultures alone are spreading the disease or if there are
other
                
carriers. 

                
TELEGRAPH