VIVEK DESHPANDE, NAGPUR, MAY 7 RESEARCH by Indian veterinarian Ajay Poharkar has shown that apart from the anti-inflammatory, analgesic drug diclofenac, malaria too is a major cause for vulture deaths. The widely accepted vulture extinction theory by UK scientist Lindsay Oak which originated in Pakistan holds diclofenac responsible for endangering the specie. After being ignored by experts for years, Poharkar's work has appeared as the cover story in the February 25 issue of Current Science, a reputed international science journal. Hyderabad's Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) scientists Anuradha Reddy and S Shivaji have co-authored the article with Poharkar along with |hree other veterinarian experts- Vilas Ghadge, Sunil Kolte and Nitin Kurkure of the Nagpur Veterinary College. Reddy and Shivaji had started working with Poharkar and the National Association for Welfare of Animals and Research, a voluntary body which had helped him with funds and other support, after his studies showed malaria to be a cause for vulture death. Poharkar, a Livestock Development Officer with Maharashtra's Department of Animal Husbandry, admittedly knew nothing about vultures till 2002. He was prompted by a forest officer to do research on them and since then has been working on vultures in Gadchiroli. At Nimgaon village, he has set up what he calls "vulture restaurant- an enclosure where dead animals are thrown to attract vultures." "I always thought the diclofenac theory was inadequate. One vulture requires at least 500 gms of meat per day. In that, there would be a very little trace of diclofenac. Also, how could we apply findings in Pakistan to all areas without verifying," he says. The fact that Gadchiroli farmers were too poor to use diclofenac on such a mass scale also added to Poharkar's apprehensions. The turnaround came in October 2004 when Poharkar found malarial parasite in the blood-smear sample of a dead vulture in a test at Nagpur's veterinary college. Subsequently, he found that 40 of the 60 deaths in Gadchiroli had been caused by malaria, a fact confirmed by the CCMB and Mumbai's veterinary college. Malarial symptoms are quite similar to that caused by diclofenac like shivering, ruffled feathers, respiratory distress, circling movement of head, greenish watery diarrhoea, paralysis and anaemia. However, the major similarity is that of visceral gout (whitish deposition on viscera). Poharkar's findings were further confirmed when he treated an ill bird with chloroquin-pri-maquin combination, a malarial drug. Moreover, samples sent for diclofenac estimation had come back negative. "I am not saying vultures in Pakistan didn't die of declofenac. What I am saying is malaria is the cause at least where I am working," says Poharkar. In Gadchiroli, where he had registered 200vultures, today only 14 are now left.