Eco-group Vulpro has slammed rumours that blame vultures for spreading foot and mouth disease (FMD), saying the false accusations could spark retaliatory poisonings.
This would not only place great pressure on already beleagured vulture populations but also damage a vital barrier against the disease.
Vulpro is based in Shamwari Private Game Reserve, near Paterson.
Vulpro CEO Kerri Wolter said SA was currently managing widespread FMD outbreaks across KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape, Gauteng, the Free State, the North West and Mpumalanga.
At the same time, the homes and foraging ranges of Southern Africa’s most vulnerable vulture species were situated in these provinces.
“Recent reports of vultures being blamed for the spread of FMD are deeply troubling. The assertion that vultures act as vectors for FMD ignores the specialised biology that makes these birds nature’s most effective sanitation experts,” she said.
It is deeply unfair to the vulture to be loathed as a scavenger of misery when they are merely filling a void left by a broken biosecurity system. They are doing for free what authorities have failed to do with tax money
— Kerri Wolter, Vulpro CEO
Wolter said scientific research into vulture physiology revealed a digestive system uniquely evolved to neutralise lethal pathogens, effectively acting as a biological dead end for diseases like FMD.
“By rapidly consuming carcasses, vultures provide an indispensable service, removing diseased tissue from the environment...
Eco-group Vulpro has slammed rumours that blame vultures for spreading foot and mouth disease (FMD), saying the false accusations could spark retaliatory poisonings. This would not only place grea...