How decline of Indian vultures led to 500,000 human deaths

bbc ^

[algore]

Once upon a time, the vulture was an abundant and ubiquitous bird in India.

The scavenging birds hovered over sprawling landfills, looking for cattle carcasses. Sometimes they would alarm pilots by getting sucked into jet engines during airport take-offs.

But more than two decades ago, India’s vultures began dying because of a drug used to treat sick cows. By the mid-1990s, the 50 million-strong vulture population had plummeted to near zero because of diclofenac, a cheap non-steroidal painkiller for cattle that is fatal to vultures. Birds that fed on carcasses of livestock treated with the drug suffered from kidney failure and died.

Since the 2006 ban on veterinary use of diclofenac, the decline has slowed in some areas, but at least three species have suffered long-term losses of 91-98%, according to the latest State of India's Birds report.

And that’s not all, according to a new peer-reviewed study. The unintentional decimation of these heavy, scavenging birds allowed deadly bacteria and infections to proliferate, leading to the deaths of about half a million people over five years, says the study published in the American Economic Association journal.

“Vultures are considered nature’s sanitation service because of the important role they play in removing dead animals that contain bacteria and pathogens from our environment - without them, disease can spread,” says the study’s co-author, Eyal Frank, an assistant professor at University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy.

“Understanding the role vultures play in human health underscores the importance of protecting wildlife, and not just the cute and cuddly. They all have a job to do in our ecosystems that impacts our lives.”

Mr Frank and his co-author Anant Sudarshan compared human death rates in Indian districts that once thrived with vultures to those with historically low vulture populations

[Buffalo Bob]

God’s perfect Creation.

[SunkenCiv]

• In The Towers Of Silence, An Ancient Ritual Of Death Comes Under Threat [09/11/2006]

[Tell It Right]

For comparison, this same India has 15 million abortions in a year.

[Red Badger]

Another Kamala Thread?................

[pghbjugop]

The 80s and 90s commercials “children are often forced to bathe in the same waters as the animals” Was I the only person asking why they are bathing cows? Ok, so cows are sacred, so why are you letting them die and rot instead of disposing them? If they are milking cows, then feed the carcus to the other animals, make fertilizer, anything.
Am I crazy?

[nwrep]

India is a crappy country in which hundreds of thousands die every year from diseases that are extinct or easily preventable in the West.

[SunkenCiv]

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[takebackaustin]

Cows wade out into the body of water they are drinking from and p**s and s**t in it.

I would read that quote as saying some Indian children drink and bathe in water that cattle have contaminated through whatever means.

Actually many people everywhere there are cattle do. The level of risk is more a matter of dosage.

[TexasGator]

Article refers to livestock.

[ZOOKER]

Just vultures to accomplish this task? No other species fills this niche?

No rats? Crows? Raccoons?

Around here the landfills are full of seagulls, although there is no seacoast anywhere near, while vultures seem to prefer road kill.

[Ciexyz]

Good Lord

[Inyo-Mono]

An older woman where I worked in the 1970s had a grand dream of visiting India. I believe she read Kipling’s books. She finally saved enough and went on her trip. When she returned, she had nothing good to say about India, she mentioned the crowds, the filth, dead cows, the stench, garbage everywhere, and people using the streets as a public restroom.

[Bigg Red]

Flies-on-your-face country....

[nwrep]

There is nothing good about it.

[imabadboy99]

Mumbai Mike Lee wants millions of these non-Christian savages invading our country and stealing our jobs and our kids’ futures.

[Gena Bukin]

For comparison, this same India has 15 million abortions in a year.

Last year India hit 1.4 billion people surpassing China as the most populous country in the world.

There is no shortage of Indians.

[nwrep]

They are not compatible with western civilization.

[metmom]

India is infamous for the level of filth in it.

[NorthMountain]

We have a lot of roadkill in Appalachia

What the DOT doesn’t pick up (ie: most of it), the buzzards take care of.