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Latest News<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n (for background information on Diclofenac in Europe: see\u00a0news from the 3th March 2014 >><\/a>)<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>10\u00a0EU governments and the EU Commission<\/span>\u00a0have already received from national organisational a formal request to start a referral procedure to ban the drug in Europe<\/span><\/p>\n Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux has released\u00a0the news in France\u00a0\u2013 see\u00a0here<\/span><\/p>\n 14,000 people have signed the English petition<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0– see\u00a0here<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n The Convention on Migratory Species (CMS, also known as the Bonn Convention) has written to the Spanish and Italian governments asking them to take some action \u00a0<\/span>The Italian company marketing the drug in Europe (FATRO) has been contacted<\/span>\u00a0and informed about the issue by the VCF. First reaction suggested some\u00a0overture to discuss possible solutions, and VCF-BirdLife International are now preparing a document to submit to FATRO<\/span><\/p>\n Update on the campaign<\/span><\/p>\n The Vulture Conservation Foundation has been at the forefront of the campaign to ban diclofenac in Europe. Ever since we were alerted for the legal marketing of this drug in Italy and Spain in late 2013, the VCF has researched the situation, established the current state of play, and promoted the building of a coalition of like-minded organisations to fight together this threat (Birdlife International, SEO\/BirdLife, RSPB and the IUCN Vulture Specialist Group).<\/span><\/p>\n Diclofenac is extremely lethal to vultures, and has caused a 99% decline in several vulture species in the Indian subcontinent. This veterinary drug has been now banned from 4 countries in South Asia, only to reappear legally in Europe. This is probably the most significant threat to Europe\u2019s vultures \u2013 whose populations have been steadily recovering following considerable investment by the EU, national governments and organisations like the VCF.<\/span><\/p>\n There are alternatives readily available to vet diclofenac, so we must learn from the Indian example, and STOP this drug before it is too late for Europe\u2019s vultures. The VCF wants to see a total ban on diclofenac<\/span>in the EU.<\/span><\/p>\n Here is an update on the situation<\/span><\/p>\n -The VCF has submitted to the European Union, together with other organisations, a formal request for the EU to start a<\/span>referral procedure<\/span>\u00a0for a withdrawal of the marketing authorization of diclofenac, under Article 35 of Directive 2001\/82\/EC, based on the risks for vulture populations in Europe. The VCF has led on the production of a series of technical documents detailing the risks and potential exposure to vultures, and informing\u00a0on the known-science on diclofenac (see<\/span>\u00a0VCF\u00b4s website<\/span><\/a>\u00a0below<\/span>\u00a0for more details). If the referral procedure is started, the Commission will ask for a scientific opinion from the European Medicine Agency, before taking a final decision. Usually the Commission upholds the opinion of the EMA.<\/span><\/p>\n -This referral procedure can also be initiated by EU member states, and\u00a0the VCF and BirdLife International have been working with national organisations in a number of countries so that they also formally ask their respective governments to push for this referral procedure \u2013 so far this request has been sent to\u00a010 EU members governments:\u00a0\u00a0Bulgaria, Croatia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Luxembourg, and Spain.<\/span><\/p>\n -A number of national and international conservation organisations have issued their own press releases on diclofenac, following the public launch of the campaign by the VCF and Birdlife International on the 3rd<\/sup>\u00a0of March. You can see several examples here<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>Hawk Conservancy Trust (<\/span>here<\/span><\/a><\/span>)<\/span><\/p>\n NABU (<\/span>here<\/span><\/a><\/span>)<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Liga Para a Prote\u00e7\u00e3o da Natureza (here<\/span><\/a><\/span>)<\/p>\n Rewilding Europe (<\/span>here<\/span><\/a><\/span>)\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Ligue Pour la Protection des Oiseaux (here<\/a>)<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>– T<\/span><\/span>he Convention on Migratory Species (CMS, also known as the Bonn Convention) has written to the Spanish and Italian governments asking them to take some action<\/span><\/span> -The issue has received some attention in the European and world press. Here are some examples of newspaper articles published in mainstream or the specialist national and international media<\/span><\/p>\n The Guardian (UK)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0here<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n El Pa\u00eds (Spain)<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0here<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n ABC (Spain)\u00a0here<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Publico (Portugal)\u00a0here<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Vet Magazine (Germany)<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>here<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Dnevnik (Bulgaria)\u00a0here<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n Farmer (Bulgaria)\u00a0here<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n La Buvette des Alpages (France) here<\/a><\/p>\n WildLife Extra<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0here<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n –In the meantime, a couple of petitions have also been initiated, one<\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0in English<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0and one<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>in Spanish<\/span><\/a><\/span>. The English petition is addressed to the two EU Commissioners, and has already 14,000 signatures!<\/span><\/p>\n -Two scientific letters have also been submitted by vulture researchers and scientists to\u00a0\u00a0the prestigious\u00a0journals Conservation Biology (by Spanish researchers) and Science (by a number of VCF-affiliated scientists and other researchers)<\/span><\/p>\n –\u00a0Quite relevant, the company marketing the drug in Spain has put out \u2013 and then withdrew – an announcement with a recommendation that the vet diclofenac should not be administered to products that are susceptible to enter the vulture food chain. Considering the extensive character of many livestock explorations in Spain, and also the way that many vulture feeding stations work, this is impossible to control \u2013 but at least they recognise now the risk to vultures. This should have been adequately evaluated during the risk assessment!<\/span>VCF and BirdLife International have in the meantime formally contacted the company marketing the drugs in Europe, informed them of the issue, and have been requested to present a proposal, which is now under preparation.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>Stay tuned for further updates!<\/span><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Latest News (for background information on Diclofenac in Europe: see\u00a0news from the 3th March 2014 >>) \u00a010\u00a0EU governments and the EU Commission\u00a0have already received from national organisational a formal request to start a referral procedure to ban the drug in Europe Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux has released\u00a0the news in France\u00a0\u2013 see\u00a0here 14,000 people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6729,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6733","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"yoast_head":"\n
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