NEW DELHI, March 8 (Chinese media) -- Malaria, a disease that afflicts millions of Indians every year, is now threatening critically endangered Indian vultures, said Delhi-based tabloid Mail Today on Sunday.
The newspaper quoted a study by Center for Cellular and Molecular Biology (CCMB) based in Hyderabad, central India, as saying that vultures in central and southern India are dying due to a strain of avian malaria spread by mosquitoes.
Following the deaths of some vultures in India, Nepal and Pakistan some years ago, the government has banned the use of Diclofenace, a veterinary drug thought to have caused the deaths then, said the report.
Yet, the decline of number of vultures has been continuing, causing scientists to claim that malaria could be the additional cause of deaths besides the drug, said the report.
The confirmation that malaria is the cause of deaths in Diclofenace-free areas is based on the presence of intra-cellular malarial parasite in tissues of living as well as dead vultures. The presence of molecular markers for Plasmodium falciparum (malarial parasite) also confirms malaria, the paper quoted CCMB scientist S. Shivaji as saying.
Researchers also rescued two terminally-ill vultures with symptoms of malaria. Treatment with anti-malarial drugs led to their recovery, said the report.
The Indian vulture is an old, globally famous vulture. Like other vultures it is a scavenger, feeding mostly from carcasses of dead animals. It is an endangered specie and efforts are being made to save its declining population.
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