The center maintains labs, large aviaries and individual "hospital" aviaries for sick birds that will be monitored by closed-circuit television—an unobtrusive way to monitor the people-shy birds.
When ill, the birds droop their heads and progressively become more lethargic.
"In captivity, the sick birds will not droop their necks if watched (by people), it's a protective technique so that they don't look vulnerable," says Andrew Cunningham, head of wildlife epidemiology at the Zoological Society of London.
After several weeks of "drooping head behavior," the birds die of so-called visceral gout—a buildup of uric acid crystals, a natural waste product, particularly in the heart, liver, and kidneys.
Nobody knows what causes the gout but researchers suspect a new virus. "These birds are dying from an infectious disease," says Cunningham, "dehydration and gout is just the end stage."
Satellite Studies, Disease Spread
At the vulture care center, veterinarians will monitor how the disease progresses in sick vultures, and take frequent blood samples—something that hasn't been possible in the wild. They will also harvest tissue samples immediately after a bird dies. Until now, these samples were taken from dead animals stumbled on by researchers at study sites after the corpse had been sitting the sun. Often the tissue was unfit for study.
"In those conditions the virus would die along with the animal and we wouldn't have any chance of discovering it," says Cunningham.
A danger is that whatever is plaguing the vultures may spread to other species.
Researchers are monitoring the highly migratory Eurasian vulture species that winters in India.
In January, Indian and British scientists launched a pilot satellite tagging program to find out where the Eurasian vulture breeds and where it migrates.
The team, led by Debbie Pain, a biologist and head of international research at the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, tagged four healthy vultures—two Eurasian and two Himalayan—near the vulture center.
"Within two weeks the Eurasian vultures had crossed China and ended up in Mongolia, traveling a total distance of more than 1,600 miles," says Pain. "We had no idea they traveled so far so fast."
The Eurasian vulture is within the same genus of vulture as bengalensis. Cunningham and Pain fear disease transmission from India into Africa via the Middle East. "There could be very severe ecological consequences in Africa if vultures decline," Pain says.
In October the researchers will begin a surveillance and satellite tagging project for the Middle East—Jordan, Yemen, and Iran—to monitor for the appearance of the disease there. The Budapest meeting may just expedite their efforts.
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