An important article is below.
 
Cheers, Tom


---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: david duthie  <david.duthie@unep.ch>
Date: Aug 11, 2008 10:18 PM
Subject:  [bioplan] Rabies tragedy follows loss of India's vultures
To: bioplan <_bioplan@groups.undp.org_ (mailto:bioplan@groups.undp.org) >

Dear  BIOPLANNERS,


The Indian vulture "saga" rumbles on and has taken on a  new twist that 
might, perhaps, lead to more concerted action to rescue the  vultures from the 
brink of extinction.

As I have often quoted here, in  ecology, you can "never do merely one 
thing", so knock-on effects should always  be expected rather than take us by 
surprise.

Now, Professor Anil  Markandya (who I have worked with in the past) and his 
colleagues at University  of Bath and the Indian Institute of Economic Growth 
have demonstrated how the  loss of vulture ecosystem services (i.e. livestock 
carcass consumption) has lead  to a dramatic increase in feral dog populations 
with associated risk of human  rabies infections and deaths from bites - 
giving a total estimated health cost  for the period from 1993-2006 of 34 billion 
USD!

The team estimate that  the cost of a 20-year rehabilitation program for the 
vultures would be closer to  100 million USD - which seems to offer a 
reasonable return on investment if  these calculations are anything close to correct.

Similar "you can never  do merely one thing" thinking applies to the 
multitude of ecological  perturbations currently being generated by climate change - 
we can expect many  more such ecological knock-ons.

Best wishes

David Duthie

--  
David Duthie
UNEP-GEF Biosafety Unit
Geneva
Email:  david.duthie(at)unep.ch

**************************************************

Rabies  tragedy follows loss of India's vultures

* 06 August  2008
* From New Scientist
* Matt Walker

A  CONSERVATION catastrophe has become a human tragedy. The mass
poisoning that  has killed millions of India's vultures may have
indirectly claimed the lives  of almost 50,000 people, according to an
analysis of the wider impacts of the  bird die-off.

Since the 1990s, numbers of long-billed, slender-billed and  oriental
white-backed vultures have declined at an unprecedented rate. All  three
species could be driven toward extinction within a decade. The cause  is
a veterinary drug called diclofenac, which was routinely given  to
cattle. When the cattle died, vultures that fed on their carcasses  were
poisoned by the drug. Although now banned in India, diclofenac is  stlll
used to some extent.

It seems the drug has also had an  unforeseen knock-on impact. As vulture
numbers crashed, the population of  feral dogs across India surged,
feasting upon cattle carcasses that would  otherwise have been stripped
bare by birds. Many of these dogs carry rabies,  and now scientists in
the UK and India, led by Anil Markandya of the  University of Bath, UK,
have put a figure on how many people have died from  rabies after being
bitten by such dogs.

They calculate that the  decline of vultures made way for at least 5.5
million extra feral dogs in  India between 1992 and 2006. During this
period, these extra dogs would have  been responsible for at least 38.5
million bites. National surveys show that  in India 123 people die of
rabies per 100,000 dog bites, suggesting that a  minimum of 47,300 people
have died as a result of the vulture die-off  (Ecological Economics, DOI:
10.1016/j.ecolecon.2008.04.020 - subscription  required). Taking account
of the cost of treating bite victims and dealing  with the extra deaths,
the researchers calculate that the use of diclofenac  has indirectly cost
India $34 billion.

Despite the scale of the  disaster, "it is unfair to blame anyone, as the
impacts of diclofenac were  unforeseen", says Markandya. "The lesson is
to check the consequences of  drugs before using them for animals that
are part of an ecological system  such as this."

Related Articles

* Indian vultures  circling towards extinction
* _http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn13804_ 
(http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn13804)   (subscription
required)
* 30 April  2008

Weblinks

* Anil Markandya, University of  Bath
* _http://people.bath.ac.uk/hssam/_ (http://people.bath.ac.uk/hssam/) 

* Ecological  Economics
_http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VDY-4T3KP96-1&_use
r=10&_coverDate=07%2F30%2F2008&_alid=773919603&_rdoc=2&_fmt=high&_orig=search&
_cdi=5995&_sort=d&_docanchor=&view=c&_ct=130&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlV
ersion=0&_userid=10&md5=c8abaee8a06e8f019e2e148825daaa71_ 
(http://www.sciencedirect.com/science?_ob=ArticleURL&_udi=B6VDY-4T3KP96-1&_user=10&_coverDate=07/3
0/2008&_alid=773919603&_rdoc=2&_fmt=high&_orig=search&_cdi=5995&_sort=d&_docan
chor=&view=c&_ct=130&_acct=C000050221&_version=1&_urlVersion=0&_userid=10&md5=
c8abaee8a06e8f019e2e148825daaa71)