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Birds Beware: Several veterinary drugs may kill scavengers

By Susan Milius

- More than 2 years ago

Scavenging birds worldwide could be at risk of accidental poisoning from carcasses of livestock that farmers had dosed with certain anti-inflammatory drugs, according to a survey of veterinarian records.

SENSITIVE. The Harris’s hawk, native to the Americas, is one of the species whose members have died after veterinary treatment with anti-inflammatory drugs. IStockphoto

The work grows out of discoveries in the past 2 years that several Gyps vulture species have almost vanished from India and Pakistan because residues of the anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac in dead farm animals ruin the kidneys of the scavenger birds (SN: 2/4/06, p.