Diclofenac, a veterinary anti-inflammatory drug given to livestock, kills vultures that scavenge treated carcasses — causing the near-extinction of three Asian vulture species within a decade.
Vultures poisoned by diclofenac die from visceral gout — uric acid crystal deposits in organs causing acute kidney failure. This is a painful death from a drug never intended to harm them. The scale of the population collapse — 99% decline in white-backed vultures — represents one of the fastest wildlife population crashes in recorded history. Each individual dying from gout following a meal of treated carcass is suffering a preventable death caused by pharmaceutical misuse in livestock medicine.