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Veterinary use of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac on domesticated ungulates caused populations of resident Gyps vultures in the Indian sub-continent to collapse. The birds died when they fed on carrion from treated animals. Veterinary diclofenac was banned in 2006 and meloxicam was advocated as a 'vulture-safe' alternative. We examine the effectiveness of the 2006 ban, whether meloxicam has replaced diclofenac, and the impact of these changes on vultures. Drug residue data from liver samples collected from ungulate carcasses in India since 2004 demonstrate that the prevalence of diclofenac in carcasses in 2009 was half of that before the ban and meloxicam prevalence increased by 44%. The expected vulture death rate from diclofenac per meal in 2009 was one-third of that before the ban. Surveys at veterinary clinics show that diclofenac use in India began in 1994, coinciding with the onset of rapid Gyps declines ascertained from measured rates of declines. Our study shows that one pharmaceutical product has had a devastating impact on Asia's vultures. Large-scale research and survey were needed to detect, diagnose and quantify the problem and measure the response to remedial actions. Given these difficulties, other effects of pharmaceuticals in the environment may remain undetected., (© 2014 The Author(s) Published by the Royal Society. All rights reserved.)

Diclofenac, a non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID), has caused catastrophic vulture declines across the Indian sub-continent. Here, an indirect ELISA is used to detect and quantify diclofenac in 1251 liver samples from livestock carcasses collected across India between August 2007 and June 2008, one to two years after a ban on diclofenac manufacture and distribution for veterinary use was implemented. The ELISAs applicability was authenticated with independent data obtained using LC-ESI/MS. Of 1251 samples, 1150 (91.9%) were negative for diclofenac using both methods, and 60 (4.8%) were positive at 10-4348 and 10-4441 μg kg(-1) when analysed by ELISA and LC-ESI/MS, respectively. The residue level relationship in the 60 positive samples was highly significant (p < 0.001, r(2) = 0.644). Data suggest that this immunological assay could be used not only for cost effective sample screening, but also for residue level semi-quantification., (Copyright © 2011. Published by Elsevier Ltd.)

Contamination of their carrion food supply with the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac has caused rapid population declines across the Indian subcontinent of three species of Gyps vultures endemic to South Asia. The governments of India, Pakistan and Nepal took action in 2006 to prevent the veterinary use of diclofenac on domesticated livestock, the route by which contamination occurs. We analyse data from three surveys of the prevalence and concentration of diclofenac residues in carcasses of domesticated ungulates in India, carried out before and after the implementation of a ban on veterinary use. There was little change in the prevalence and concentration of diclofenac between a survey before the ban and one conducted soon after its implementation, with the percentage of carcasses containing diclofenac in these surveys estimated at 10.8 and 10.7%, respectively. However, both the prevalence and concentration of diclofenac had fallen markedly 7-31 months after the implementation of the ban, with the true prevalence in this third survey estimated at 6.5%. Modelling of the impact of this reduction in diclofenac on the expected rate of decline of the oriental white-backed vulture (Gyps bengalensis) in India indicates that the decline rate has decreased to 40% of the rate before the ban, but is still likely to be rapid (about 18% year(-1)). Hence, further efforts to remove diclofenac from vulture food are still needed if the future recovery or successful reintroduction of vultures is to be feasible.

Non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are efficacious in chemoprevention of colorectal cancer. Therefore, the potential ability of Etoricoxib, a selective cycloxygenase-2(COX-2) inhibitor and Diclofenac, a preferential COX-2 inhibitor are considered in the chemoprevention of 1, 2-dimethylhydrazine (DMH) induced colon carcinogenesis in rat model. DMH was injected s.c. for six weeks while Etoricoxib and Diclofenac were fed daily orally alone and also in combination with an weekly subcutaneous injection of 1,2-dimethylhydrazine dihydrochloride (DMH) to the rats. After the treatment period of 6 weeks the animals were sacrificed by an overdose of ether anesthesia and the colonic tissues were removed and studied by the FTIR and NMR Spectroscopic techniques to evaluate the changes occurring in the lipid bilayer of colonic membrane lipids. The alterations in wave number of FTIR spectra as well as the chemical shifts of NMR spectra were recorded which signify the modulation of membrane lipids during colon carcinogenesis and possible cancer prevention by the oral administration of NSAIDs in an experimental model of chemical induced colon carcinogenesis.

The chemopreventive response was evaluated of nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug, Diclofenac, a preferential cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor in 1,2-dimethyhydrazine (DMH)-induced colon cancer in rat model. The signs of neoplasm were evident in the animals receiving 30mg of DMH per kg body weight in a weekly s.c injection for six weeks. The putative biomarker of carcinogenesis was visible in the form of multiple plaque lesions in DMH treatment and then regression seen in those animals which also received an oral dose of Diclofenac, 8 mg/kg body weight whereas no such macroscopic neoplastic lesions were seen in the animals receiving Diclofenac only or the control animals receiving the vehicle of the drug. Histopathological results showed the presence of early aberrant changes in the form of severe dysplasia and also numerous crypt fissions in the apical surface of the colonic mucosa. A very high expression of COX-2 was seen in the colonic epithelium of DMH-treated rats, as analyzed by immunohistochemistry. Also, the apoptotic events were assessed by terminal deoxynucleotidyl dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay, where the DMH group shows few number of TUNEL positive cells which dramatically increased in the Diclofenac treatment. The results suggest that Diclofenac could be an effective chemopreventive agent in colon cancer, where perhaps apoptosis plays a very dominant end effect in cancer cell killings.

Veterinary use of the nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory (NSAID) drug diclofenac in South Asia has resulted in the collapse of populations of three vulture species of the genus Gyps to the most severe category of global extinction risk. Vultures are exposed to diclofenac when scavenging on livestock treated with the drug shortly before death. Diclofenac causes kidney damage, increased serum uric acid concentrations, visceral gout, and death. Concern about this issue led the Indian Government to announce its intention to ban the veterinary use of diclofenac by September 2005. Implementation of a ban is still in progress late in 2005, and to facilitate this we sought potential alternative NSAIDs by obtaining information from captive bird collections worldwide. We found that the NSAID meloxicam had been administered to 35 captive Gyps vultures with no apparent ill effects. We then undertook a phased programme of safety testing of meloxicam on the African white-backed vulture Gyps africanus, which we had previously established to be as susceptible to diclofenac poisoning as the endangered Asian Gyps vultures. We estimated the likely maximum level of exposure (MLE) of wild vultures and dosed birds by gavage (oral administration) with increasing quantities of the drug until the likely MLE was exceeded in a sample of 40 G. africanus. Subsequently, six G. africanus were fed tissues from cattle which had been treated with a higher than standard veterinary course of meloxicam prior to death. In the final phase, ten Asian vultures of two of the endangered species (Gyps bengalensis, Gyps indicus) were dosed with meloxicam by gavage; five of them at more than the likely MLE dosage. All meloxicam-treated birds survived all treatments, and none suffered any obvious clinical effects. Serum uric acid concentrations remained within the normal limits throughout, and were significantly lower than those from birds treated with diclofenac in other studies. We conclude that meloxicam is of low toxicity to Gyps vultures and that its use in place of diclofenac would reduce vulture mortality substantially in the Indian subcontinent. Meloxicam is already available for veterinary use in India.

Non steroidal anti inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are efficacious in chemoprevention of colorectal cancer. Therefore, the potential ability of Etoricoxib, a selective cycloxygenase-2(COX-2) inhibitor and Diclofenac, a preferential COX-2 inhibitor are considered in the chemoprevention of 1, 2-dimethylhydrazine (DMH) induced colon carcinogenesis in rat model. DMH was injected s.c. for six weeks while Etoricoxib and Diclofenac were fed daily orally alone and also in combination with an weekly subcutaneous injection of 1,2-dimethylhydrazine dihydrochloride (DMH) to the rats. After the treatment period of 6 weeks the animals were sacrificed by an overdose of ether anesthesia and the colonic tissues were removed and studied by the FTIR and NMR Spectroscopic techniques to evaluate the changes occurring in the lipid bilayer of colonic membrane lipids. The alterations in wave number of FTIR spectra as well as the chemical shifts of NMR spectra were recorded which signify the modulation of membrane lipids during colon carcinogenesis and possible cancer prevention by the oral administration of NSAIDs in an experimental model of chemical induced colon carcinogenesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The chemopreventive response was evaluated of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, Diclofenac, a preferential cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) inhibitor in 1,2-dimethyhydrazine (DMH)-induced colon cancer in rat model. The signs of neoplasm were evident in the animals receiving 30 mg of DMH per kg body weight in a weekly s.c injection for six weeks. The putative biomarker of carcinogenesis was visible in the form of multiple plaque lesions in DMH treatment and then regression seen in those animals which also received an oral dose of Diclofenac, 8 mg/kg body weight whereas no such macroscopic neoplastic lesions were seen in the animals receiving Diclofenac only or the control animals receiving the vehicle of the drug. Histopathological results showed the presence of early aberrant changes in the form of severe dysplasia and also numerous crypt fissions in the apical surface of the colonic mucosa. A very high expression of COX-2 was seen in the colonic epithelium of DMH-treated rats, as analyzed by immunohistochemistry. Also, the apoptotic events were assessed by terminal deoxynucleotidyl dUTP nick end labeling (TUNEL) assay, where the DMH group shows few number of TUNEL positive cells which dramatically increased in the Diclofenac treatment. The results suggest that Diclofenac could be an effective chemopreventive agent in colon cancer, where perhaps apoptosis plays a very dominant end effect in cancer cell killings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Widespread veterinary use of the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug diclofenac is responsible for the population collapse of three species of Gyps vulture in south Asia; these species are now critically endangered. Vultures die when they consume carcasses of livestock that contain lethal residues of diclofenac. National and international conservation organizations have urgently recommended that diclofenac be banned and replaced with alternative drugs that are relatively safe to Gyps vultures and other scavenging birds. We tested the safety of the NSAID meloxicam on the oriental white-backed vulture, long-billed vulture and a range of other scavenging birds in India (Egyptian vulture Neophron percnopterus, cattle egret Bubulcus ibis, house crow Corvus splendens, large-billed crow Corvus machrorhynchos and common mynah Acridotheres tristis). Meloxicam was administered by oral intubation [at 0.5 and 2.0 mg kg−1 vulture body weight (bw)], or through feeding with muscle or liver tissue (at 0.3 to 2.1 mg kg−1 vulture bw) from meloxicam-treated buffalo Bubalus bubalis. We estimate that 2.0 mg kg−1 bw is the maximum likely exposure in the wild. All 31 Gyps vultures and the 20 other scavenging birds given meloxicam survived. Feeding behaviour remained normal and there were no significant differences between the treated and control groups in body mass, or the blood haematology and biochemistry parameters monitored, including those known to be affected by diclofenac (uric acid levels and alanine transferase activity). Meloxicam is used to treat a wide range of livestock ailments and is licensed and manufactured in India. We recommend that meloxicam be introduced as rapidly as possible across the Indian sub-continent as an alternative to diclofenac. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]