Corporate Magazine 2012 - Boehringer Ingelheim

1 Phoenix, the first captive-bredOriental White Back Vulture.2 Jürgen Dämmgen and the teamvisiting an Indian village.12A FUTURE FORVULTURES IN INDIAMillions of vultures used to be part of the fabric of India, just likerickshaws, fakirs and the Taj Mahal. In the late 1990s, ornithologistsstarted to discover that vultures were dying with no obvious cause andraised the first alarm bells. Jürgen Dämmgen is Boehringer IngelheimAnimal Health’s ambassador for coordinating the company’s support.CHEMICAL STRUCTUREOF MELOXICAMMeloxicam, the active ingredientof metacam © , is a nonsteroidalanti-inflammatory drug (NSAID).Its chemical structure and biologicalcharacteristics are differentfrom diclofenac.What consequence did the dyingvultures have for India?jürgen dämmgen: For religiousreasons, cows are sacred creatures inIndia. That is the reason why cattle havingdied in old age sanctuaries (panjarapoles)are disposed of carcass dumps,where they used to be eaten by carioneatingvultures. Meanwhile, this role ofvultures has been partly taken over by arising number of feral dogs, increasingthe risk for humans of being attackedand infected with rabies. Since 2007,Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Healthhas been supporting an initiative that istrying to help improve the situation.Has the root cause for thiscatastrophy been discovered?jürgen dämmgen: After a frustratinginitial search for infectious agents,a groundbreaking discovery was madeby detecting residues of diclofenac, thewell-known nonsteroidal anti-inflammatorydrug (NSAID), in cattle carcasses.This drug turned out to be extremelytoxic for vultures.106 Boehringer Ingelheim annual report 2012