| Hello Jeff...
Much illness especially with regard to nonendemic disease emergence is
man made. Some illness, like WNV (LIKE) and SARS came from labs, and other
illness is directly result of man's tampering with nature and his careless
use of the environment and his pollution. The two articles below represent
this cause. I also believe that the use of depleted uranium and direct
environmental impact of war will cause still more outbreaks.
It does appear that the vultures in India are dying due to overuse of veterinary
pain relief compound (diclofenac) now found widely polluting the environment.
This compound is also in the US environment and in our soil and water.
Might very well contribute to mad cow.
As for mystery illness of children, it appears that pentacholophenol, a
chemical is the cause of the mystery illness and death in children. Here
again, man's irresponsible use of harmful chemicals and toxins to blame.
VULTURE DIE-OFF - INDIA: ETIOLOGY
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[1]
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003
From: Conor Kretsch <Conor.Kretsch@enviros.com>
The article in 'The Hindu' daily from 1 Jun 2003 probably refers to the
work recently carried out by Dr. J. Lindsay Oaks, a US veterinarian with
the College of Veterinary Medicine at Washington State University, who
has established experimentally that at least some vultures in India have
died of diclofenac toxicity, which causes renal failure in the birds (also
a potential but rare side-effect in humans). He recently discussed his
findings at the 6th World Conference on Birds of Prey and Owls, held on
18-23 May 2003 in Budapest, Hungary. [See summary with main points in [2]
& [3] below].
India has the largest livestock population in the world. Diclofenac sodium
is widely administered by veterinarians in India in analgesic, antirheumatic
and antimicrobial preparations. Dead livestock (potentially laden with
diclofenac, if they died from or with an illness for which it was administered)
are usually left out in the open for removal by vultures -- the quickest,
cheapest, easiest and most efficient natural disposal method.
There are some questions still to be answered: If diclofenac is the cause,
why only now, and why has it not affected other scavenging birds or mammals
to the same extent?
Dozens of research projects throughout Europe and the USA have demonstrated
the presence of a wide range of pharmaceutical compounds in the aquatic
and terrestrial environments, and diclofenac is one of the most commonly
found drugs in environmental samples. For many drug compounds, a large
portion of the administered dose is not completely metabolised by the body,
and the active compound is excreted either whole or only partially metabolised,
entering sewage systems, or in the case of livestock, reaching soil and
surface waters via manure deposited on the ground. Drug molecules and their
metabolites are often not broken down in sewage treatment plants, and so
are discharged in sewage plant effluent to surface waters, or with sewage
sludge which is spread onto fields as fertiliser or disposed of in landfills.
The removal rate of diclofenac in tertiary treatment plants can be as low
as 16 percent.
India has a high population density, and many sewage treatment plants are
low- grade (primary or secondary treatment only) or otherwise inefficient.
The availability of diclofenac has increased greatly in recent years due
to numerous market factors. There is widespread abuse of the prescription
laws which should restrict drug sales, with poor dose controls for humans
and livestock, and this has arguably become more widespread in the past
5 years. Consequently diclofenac use is high, with potentially significant
(for vultures) environmental concentrations -- both in livestock and in
natural waters. The situation is similar in parts of Cambodia, Nepal and
Pakistan. However if reports of a vulture decline in Afghanistan and Europe
are borne out, other questions will arise.
Regarding other species of scavengers, some have apparently been affected
in small numbers. However, it is likely that vultures have been more susceptible
because they are usually the first to arrive at a carcass, and do so in
such numbers that other scavengers generally have to wait until the vultures
have eaten their fill before they can feed, by which time most of the soft
organs where diclofenac would be concentrated have been eaten. It could
be argued that with a reduction in vulture numbers, other scavengers should
now be susceptible. However, many species can't penetrate the hides of
livestock carcasses, and would normally have to wait for vultures to do
most of the work -- indicated by the numbers of carcasses now left to decay
in the south Asian countryside. Those species which are benefiting from
the abundance of carcasses -- feral dogs and rats -- may be physiologically
more tolerant of exposure to diclofenac, though I doubt that many wild
rats or dogs in India have been examined for renal complications...
There is also the question of the disposal of unused diclofenac (and indeed,
other pharmaceuticals) in India. If large amounts have gone to landfill,
where vultures are common scavengers, then this is another potential route
of exposure. If we assume that diclofenac is the culprit, it may in fact
not be the only toxicant involved -- there must certainly be a range of
pharmaceuticals and other chemicals to which these birds have been exposed.
Perhaps diclofenac on its own would not have had such a significant impact?
Discussions of pharmaceuticals in the environment may be found on the US
EPA website <http://www.epa.gov/esd/chemistry/pharma/index.htm>,
and at <www.envirpoharma.org>. The environmental occurrence of diclofenac
is discussed in several references listed in these web sites.
An interesting discussion of pharmaceutical marketing practices in India
was published in the Wall Street Journal in August 2001 and can be found
at <http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB997910373349012375.htm>;
or on the Pharm-Policy listserver at <http://lists.essential.org/pipermail/pharm-policy/2001-August/001376.html>.
--
Conor E Kretsch
Consultant Environmental Scientist
Enviros,
4 The Plaza,
Swords, Co. Dublin,
Ireland
<Conor.Kretsch@enviros.com>
Web: <www.enviros.com>
[These much-needed clarifications and background, kindly supplied by Conor
Kretsch, are gratefully appreciated. - Mod. AS].
******
[2]
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 2003
From: Conor Kretsch <Conor.Kretsch@enviros.com>
Source: The Hawk Conservancy and Country Park web-site
[edited]
<http://www.hawk-conservancy.org/camconserve.shtml>
New light shed on Indian Vulture Crisis
-------------------------
The widespread mortality and decline of 3 vulture species
(_Gyps bengalensis_, _Gyps indicus_ and _Gyps tenuirostris_) in southern
Asia has been a cause of concern since widely reported in 1999. Following
observed declines in western India, there were reports of further vulture
mortalities in Pakistan, as well as other parts of India. The extent of
these declines varies, but all are significant. At 3 sites in Pakistan,
estimates of the decline in numbers of breeding vultures are between 33
& 97 percent. Survey transects conducted across India suggest population
declines in the region of 92 percent.
Suggested causes have included pesticides, persecution, a novel infectious
disease, and habitat loss. Until recently, the identification of a single
cause has been elusive. A common finding among field workers has been the
presence of visceral gout in many dead vultures, with up to 80 percent
of adult vultures examined post mortem having shown these symptoms. Efforts
have concentrated on establishing the cause of this condition.
At the recent 6th World Conference on Birds of Prey and Owls in Budapest,
Hungary (18-23 May 2003), there was a report of significant new findings.
Dr Lindsay Oakes (Washington State University), an investigator with The
Peregrine Fund (USA), highlighted the role of Diclofenac Sodium, a non-
steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, in relation to vulture mortalities. Based
on these results, it appears that the proximal cause of visceral gout in
affected vultures is this widespread veterinary drug. Contamination of
vultures occurs following the consumption of deceased domestic stock previously
treated with Diclofenac.
To address the crisis, reactive strategies could include an attempted withdrawal
of veterinary Diclofenac from general distribution, the development of
in-country captive facilities and the re-establishment of wild populations
through food provision and field monitoring.
However, given the rate of population declines, it is possible that such
remedial objectives will be too late to avoid local extinctions. Despite
the identification of an obvious cause of vulture mortalities, the current
situation and immediate prognosis for these species remain critically unfavourable.
The European population is therefore highly significant. For a start, the
vultures in Europe have lived there for at least 15 years, and are therefore
unaffected by the problems currently afflicting wild populations.
Although the likelihood of any future captive population being used for
release is very small, if non-existent, the poor status of wild populations
means that the zoological population has a definite role to play as a 'safety
net'. A new captive care and management facility has been opened in Haryana
State (northern India), and if in situ organisations develop more of these
types of facility, it is likely that the captive population will have an
important conservation role to play into the future.
[Byline: Campbell Murn]
******
[3]
Date: Thu, 12 Jun 2003
From: Ron Rees Davies <Ron_vet@lineone.net>
Selected paragraphs from: REPORT ON THE 6th RAPTOR WORLD
CONFERENCE in Budapest (Hungary) By B.-U. Meyburg & R. D. Chancellor
The outstanding topic of the conference was the population crash of 3 _Gyps_
vulture species in Southern Asia, particularly in India and Pakistan.
Almost one whole day of the vulture session was devoted to this, followed
by a Round Table discussion. Since the disappearance in India of these
vultures, which only a few years ago occurred in huge numbers and which
anyone not directly concerned could scarcely have conceived possible, the
cause has been frantically sought. A lethal virus together with pesticides
was assumed, but without any direct evidence.
The American veterinarian J. Lindsay Oaks and his colleagues have shown
that the cause is to be found in a kidney failure brought about by Diclofenac.
This is an analgesic and antirheumatic drug extensively prescribed for
humans for a long time. For several years, in India and Pakistan, it has
been widely used to treat the livestock which [when dead] form the basic
food of the vultures. It had been proved experimentally that this in turn
affected the three _Gyps species_. Thus Diclofenac, which can also engender
serious side- effects in humans, is in fact the direct cause, borne out,
for example, by the fact that the vultures in Bombay, which fed on the
corpses put out by the Parsees on their Towers of Silence, already disappeared
long ago.
It remains unclear why other carrion-eating raptors such as the other vulture
species, kites and eagles are not affected. Much further research is needed
on this subject. Martin Gilbert <Mart_Gilbert@yahoo.com> of the Peregrine
Fund summarised all that was known about Diclofenac and undertook to seek
further information. Whether and how its application to livestock can be
reduced is the next all-important question to be tackled.
-- Ron Rees Davies, BVSc., CertZooMed., MRCVS. The Exotic Animal Centre,
12, Fitzilian Avenue,
Harold Wood,
Romford, Essex. UK. RM3 0QS
<Reesdavies@AAV.org>
<Http://www.exoticanimalcentre.com>
[More data on the experiments carried out by the Washington State University
group will be helpful in assessing the significance of the newly published
etiology. Several questions yet to be answered have been mentioned in Conor
Kretsch's commentary.
The definite cause of the vultures die-off in the Indian sub-continent
remains debatable, according to other researchers -- whose opinion, at
least until recently, was that "the chief suspect is a viral disease"
-- see <http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99993739>.
- Mod. AS].
[see also:
Vulture die-off - India: RFI 20030612.1447
Vulture die-off - India, Pakistan, Nepal 20030212.0375
Rabies and vulture die-off - India 20030207.0329
2002
----
Vulture die-off - India, Pakistan, Nepal (04) 20021018.5590
Vulture die-off - India, Pakistan, Nepal (03) 20021015.5557
Vulture die-off - India, Pakistan, Nepal (02) 20021014.5552
Vulture die-off - India, Pakistan, Nepal: RFI 20021010.5514
2001
----
Vulture die-off - India (04) 20010210.0273
2000
----
Vulture die-off - India (03) 20000922.1637
Vulture die-off - India (02) 20000920.1619
Vulture die-off - India 20000530.0867]
---------------------------arn/jw
*##########################################################*
UNDIAGNOSED DEATHS, CHILDREN - INDIA (WEST BENGAL) (05)
*******************************************************
A ProMED-mail post
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ProMED-mail is a program of the
International Society for Infectious Diseases
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Date: 14 Jun 2003
From: Daniel L Sudakin MD MPH <sudakind@ace.orst.edu>
(via Gary Greenberg <Gary.Greenberg@duke.edu>)
If chemical factors are considered in the etiology of
these cases, the clinical description is consistent with acute exposure
to pentachlorophenol (particularly high fever, and rapid progression to
life threatening symptoms). There have been several historical accounts
of acute poisoning caused by exposure to pentachlorophenol. In 1967, a
cluster of cases of critical illness in a newborn nursery occurred as a
result of the misuse of sodium pentachlorophenate as an antimildew agent
in the hospital laundry, resulting in 9 cases and 2 fatalities. In these
cases, exposure was thought to have occurred across intact skin <http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/lmrk091.htm>.
There are also reports of systemic intoxication in adults from occupational
exposure across intact skin. A consistent finding that has been described
on autopsy of fatal cases is the immediate onset of extreme rigor mortis,
which is considered a hallmark of pentachlorophenol poisoning (Jorens PG,
Schepens PJ. Human pentachlorophenol poisoning, Hum Exp Tox 1993; 12: 479-95,
Gray RE, Gilliand RD, Smith EE, et al Pentachlorophenol intoxication: report
of a fatal case, with comments on the clinical course and pathologic anatomy.
Arch Env Health 1985; 40(3): 16104, Mason MF, Wallace SM, Foerster E, et
al. Pentachlorophenol poisoning: report of two cases J Forens Sci 1965;
10: 136-7).
--
- Daniel L Sudakin MD MPH
- Assistant Professor (Principal Investigator, National
Pesticide Medical
- Monitoring Program)
- Department of Environmental and Molecular Toxicology
- Oregon State University
- 333 Weniger
- Corvallis, OR 97331-6502
- <sudakind@ace.orst.edu>
Patricia A. Doyle, PhD
- Please visit my "Emerging Diseases" message
board at: http://www.clickitnews.com/ubbthreads/postlist.php?Cat=&Board=emergingdiseases
- Zhan le Devlesa tai sastimasa
- Go with God and in Good Health
_
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