Diclofenac, a veterinary anti-inflammatory, has caused catastrophic vulture population collapses across Asia and threatens African vultures.
Vultures dying from diclofenac poisoning experience kidney failure over days, with severe physiological distress before death. The collapse of vulture populations has cascading ecological consequences: without vultures, carcasses accumulate, spreading disease to other animals including feral dogs. Population collapse affects millions of individual birds across generations.