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Indian vultures: victims of an infectious disease epidemic?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 August 2003

A. A. Cunningham
Affiliation:
Institute of Zoology, Zoological Society of London, Regent's Park, London NW1 4RY, UK
V. Prakash
Affiliation:
Bombay Natural History Society, Hornbill House, S. B. Singh Road, Mumbai 400 023, India
D. Pain
Affiliation:
RSPB, The Lodge, Sandy, Bedfordshire SG19 2DL, UK
G. R. Ghalsasi
Affiliation:
Poultry Diagnostic and Research Centre of Venkateshwara Hatcheries Limited, Pune 412 201, India
G. A. H. Wells
Affiliation:
Veterinary Laboratories Agency, Woodham Lane, New Haw, Addlestone, Surrey KT15 3NB, UK
G. N. Kolte
Affiliation:
Poultry Diagnostic and Research Centre of Venkateshwara Hatcheries Limited, Pune 412 201, India
P. Nighot
Affiliation:
Poultry Diagnostic and Research Centre of Venkateshwara Hatcheries Limited, Pune 412 201, India
M. S. Goudar
Affiliation:
Poultry Diagnostic and Research Centre of Venkateshwara Hatcheries Limited, Pune 412 201, India
S. Kshirsagar
Affiliation:
Poultry Diagnostic and Research Centre of Venkateshwara Hatcheries Limited, Pune 412 201, India
A. Rahmani
Affiliation:
Bombay Natural History Society, Hornbill House, S. B. Singh Road, Mumbai 400 023, India
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Abstract

During the 1990s, populations of two species of griffon vulture, the Indian white-backed Gyps bengalensis and the long-billed Gyps indicus, declined by more than 90% throughout India. These declines are continuing and are due to abnormally high rates of both nesting failure and adult, juvenile and nestling mortality. Affected birds exhibit signs of illness (neck drooping syndrome) for approximately 30 days prior to death. Epidemiological observations are most consistent with an infectious cause of this morbidity and mortality. To investigate the cause of these declines, 28 vulture carcases, including adults and juveniles of both species, were examined in detail. Significant post-mortem findings included visceral gout, enteritis, vasculitis and gliosis. Although we have not yet been able to identify the causative agent of the declines, the results of our pathological studies are most consistent with those for an infectious, probably viral, aetiology. We examine hypotheses for the cause of the declines and, based on our epidemiological and pathological findings, we show infectious disease to be the most tenable of these.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
2003 The Zoological Society of London

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