While Kenyans have decried the unprecedented killing of more than 75 lions by pastoralists using Furadan as was recently highlighted in the local and global media, conservationists now say the plight of wild birds, which are being poisoned in thousands, has been overlooked.

The conservationists, who convened in Nairobi on Wednesday at the invitation of the Nairobi-based NGO, WildlifeDirect, said that despite raising the alarm in April 2008, the Pest Control Products Board, which is charged with licensing of pesticides, has not responded.

The Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) has agreed to investigate the matter immediately.

Furadan, a carbofuran-based pesticide and nematicide, is among the most lethal pesticides known today.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has already revoked all food tolerances due to the alarming mortality of birds it caused when used on crops. Furadan was banned earlier in the EU, and Canada is considering a total ban.

The most noticeable bird deaths in Kenya have been those of vultures. The KWS records show that 252 vultures have been confirmed dead due to Furadan since 1995.

"This is just a tip of the iceberg," said raptor expert Munir Virani of the Peregrine Fund. "We have already lost the Egyptian Vulture," he said.

Vultures, which consume almost 70 percent of all dead animals, are in real danger of going extinct.

"In Laikipia District these days, I see carcases lying out in the sun and in plain view but without vultures feeding on them," said Laurence Frank of Living with Lions. "The carcases can remain rotting out there for days."

On May 25, 40 vultures were killed in the world-renowned Masai Mara National Reserve in an incident that also resulted in the death of an eight-month-old lion cub and several hyenas.

Scores of other bird species are also dying in thousands in Kenya's irrigation schemes. KWS reports that birds such as fulvous ducks, white-faced tree duck, knob-billed duck, Egyptian geese, Ibis, egrets, spoonbills, back-winged stilts, storks, and many raptors have been poisoned in quantities that they only describe as "pickup truck loads."

A Kenyan researcher Martin Odino has documented that wetland birds are being poisoned in rice growing areas for human consumption.

Preliminary results from Odino's ongoing survey show that large quantities of birds are being poisoned and sold as food.

Dino Martins, a Harvard PhD candidate, has also reported Furadan use in fishing on Lake Victoria. These situations expose humans to this deadly chemical.

Back in the mid-1990s, widespread poisoning of ducks in the Mwea rice scheme in eastern Kenya gave rise to protests by bird conservation groups, leading to the ban of Furadan use in rice.

"We stopped using Furadan in Mwea in 1998 after we witnessed its residual effect and its high instances of abuse," said Raphael Wanjogu, the principal research officer at the Mwea Irrigation Agricultural Development Center.

"We told our farmers to use Sumithion instead." Despite this, Odino says deliberate bird poisoning using Furadan is a daily occurrence.

In the United States, millions of birds have been poisoned in areas where Furadan was used. Recently, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned all tolerances of carbofuran on food. Canada is also looking to outlaw the use of Furadan. "Canada reported 70-100 million birds being poisoned by carbofurans," says Laurence Frank.

Owing to lion poisoning, many Kenyan members of parliament supported Navasha MP John Mututho's call to ban Furadan when the issue was discussed in parliament last week.

The minister for forestry and wildlife said Kenya was going to ban this lethal chemical. The question remains whether the government will ban it in time -- before the wildlife of Kenya becomes extinct and human fatalities emerge.

The MPs also asked the government to sue FMC for compensation for lions killed with Furadan. Although the minister was noncommittal on this issue, he said the ministry would assist individuals who have plans to do so.

Now conservationists are calling for a total ban on Furadan. " We are being bogged down to produce forensic evidence of Furadan poisoning, but we have sufficient confessions to show that carbofuran, and specifically Furadan, is responsible for this poisoning," says Darcy Ogada, a researcher with Nature Kenya.

"Human consumption of Furadan-poisoned birds in Bunyala rice scheme represents a ticking time bomb," said renowned Kenyan conservationist, Dr. Richard Leakey. "Let's get Furadan banned before we start losing people."

(Xinhua News Agency June 12, 2009)