WIPING OUT SPECIES FOR CHEAPER MEAT?

A mysterious and precipitous plunge in the number of vultures in South Asia, which has pushed three species to the brink of extinction, is probably a result of inadvertent poisoning by a drug used widely in livestock to relieve fever and lameness, scientists reported yesterday in the journal Nature. Studies in Pakistan showed that the drug, diclofenac, caused acute kidney failure in vultures when they ate the carcasses of animals that had recently been treated with it. "I think what it actually says is that we really need to look systematically at the use of pharmaceuticals for veterinary purposes," said Thomas E. Lovejoy, president of the H. John Heinz III Center for Science, Economics and the Environment.