New Delhi, March 27 -- Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) like diclofenac and flunixin are freely available throughout the continent of South America, signaling a risk to the avian scavengers of the region, a new study has found.

The researchers - Kane P. J. Colston, Irene Bueno, Lucas Gelid, Juan Manuel Grande - conducted a search of veterinary pharmaceutical products registered in all 10 Spanish and Portuguese-speaking countries across South America.

"Our search revealed that both diclofenac and flunixin have been approved for use in at least one livestock or domestic animal species in all the 10 South American countries evaluated," the authors noted.

Brazil had the highest number of different products containing diclofenac...