Indian Vultures Decline

Pharmaceutics in the Environment

Aditya ParmarAlejandro Azuaje

Ecotoxicology and Enviromental Analytics

Outline1. Pharmaceuticals in Environment2. Kinds of Pharmaceutics and Their Effects3. Pharmaceutics Action Method and Examples4. Case Study: Story of Indian Vultures 4.1. Vultures Species 4.2. The Problem 4.3. Population Decline and concequences 5. Principle Cause 6. Toxicity 7. Economical Cost 8. Efforts to save the Bird

Pharmaceuticals in the Environment

Pharmaceutics in the human

society

Emission sources

Movement of pharmaceutics

through the environment

Accumulation in ecosystems

Discovering a problem

Introduction of pharmaceutics in the environment

Human pharmaceuticsVeterinarian pharmaceutics

Excedents

Waste waterWaste Purines

Treatment plantsLandfills Soil

Surface waters

Consuming water

Underground water

http://upcommons.upc.edu/pfc/bitstream/2099.1/4885/4/03_Mem%C3%B2ria.pdf

Kinds of Pharmaceutics and Their Effects

• egg shell thinning in birds• renal failure in animals

Analgesics and non-steroidalantiinflammatory drugs

(NSAID)

• Hepatic damagesBlood lipid lowering agents

• Fluoxetine accumulated on fishes

Neuroactive compounds (antiepileptics,

antidepressants)

• effects on fishesAnticonceptives and Hormones

Pharmaceutics Action Method and Examples

Direct

Anticonceptives on fishes

Mixing

Pharmaceutics mixing: Effect of

Antibiotics erythromycin, triclosan and trimethoprim

over water fleas

Accumulation

Analgesics on South Asian

vultures

Case Study: Story of Indian Vultures Vultures Species

Gyps bengalensis Gyps indicus Gyps tenuirostris Sarcoyps calvus

• The Problem• Extinct in ten years,

vultures decline quicker than the dodo

• Population Decline• Earlys 90‘s: 92 % of decline• By 2007 the decline was 99.99 % Source: vulturerescue.org

Consequences

The Vultures Disappear

Loss of the carcass disposal

system

Increase in health costs

Feral dogs proliferate

Social problems Effects on the culture

Tower of silence

Area Effected

Principle cause • Post mortem examinations showed that the majority of dead vultures

had visceral gout, due to kidney damage.

• NO evidence of viral or bacterial infectious disease, pesticides, poisons, heavy metals, or nutritional deficiency.

• Researchers tested the theory that vultures were encountering a toxin while feeding on livestock carcasses (their main food source).

• Surveys of veterinarians and pharmacists identified diclofenac as a recently introduced and widely used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), known to be toxic to the kidneys of mammals.

Principle cause

• The drug is cheap (less than US$1 for a course) and widely used in the treatment of inflammation, pain and fever in livestock.

• The key diclofenac breakthrough was made in 2003 , lead by Professor Lindsay Oaks from Washington State University, USA

• Extensive research has followed up on this work, establishing the same correlation.

Diclofenac – Structure

CHC- chlorinated Hydrocarbon•Highly persistent in organisms and ecosystem. •High accumulation in fatty tissue of organism

Concentration accumulation

• Studies demonstrated that cattle has been administered with high dosage of diclofenac just before they die.

• Drug deposited in kidney and liver tissues in high concentrations.

• As the animal is available to vultures fairly quick in these areas, considerable amount of concentration transferred to vultures.

Toxicity

• Dead birds were often characterised by the presence of extensive kidney failure.

• Further investigation showed that diclofenac was fatal to vultures at 10 percent of the recommended mammal dose.

• The study found that 85 percent of 259 vultures examined had died of visceral gout, a condition caused by renal failure.

Toxicity-Oaks et al.

Toxicity-Oaks et al.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species

• The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) is the world's main authority on the conservation status of species.

Cost of loosing vulturesDecline in the vulture population

Increase in the dog population

Increased incidence of dog bites

Increase in rabies

Increased morbidity and mortality

Monetary valuation cost of illness and Statistical value of life

• Over the 14 year period from 1993-2006 the estimated total cost of the health costs attributable to vulture declines is a staggering US$ 34 billion.

Reference: Ecological Economics- 03130

Efforts to save the birdBanning Diclofenac

Breeding centres

Research programs on population monitoring and toxicity of other drugs

Awareness Programs

Short Video Clip

References• Karl Fent and Others. Ecotoxicology of Human Pharmaceuticals.

Switzerland. 2005. Pag. 122-159. • www.wikipedia.com• www.vulturerescue.org• www.wikipedia.com• www.vulturerescue.org • http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/14745453• http://www.birdlife.org/action/science/species/asia_vulture_crisis/

diclofenac.html• Environment International 33 (2007) 759–765• Nature. 2004 Feb 12;427(6975):630-3. • Ecological Economics• http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=happy-fish-go-h

ungry• http://e360.yale.edu/content/feature.msp?id=2263

THANKS