Three species of vulture under threat of becoming extinct within a decade have all managed to rear chicks successfully in captivity - providing hope for their survival, conservationists said yesterday.

The three vultures have disappeared from huge swathes of southern Asia due to the use of a drug in livestock which causes acute kidney failure in the birds if they eat carcasses of recently treated animals.

The population of the three Asian vultures were thought to have run to tens of millions before the use of diclofenac, but numbers of the three species are now well below 60,000 birds.

A conservation partnership in India has managed to rear all three species in captivity - including successfully breeding the long-billed vulture for the first time.

The scheme has seen 10 vulture chicks fledge this year, including three long-billed vultures, as well as three slender-billed vultures and four oriental white-billed vultures.

The success of the captive breeding programme - supported by the RSPB, Birdlife International, Bombay Natural History Society, the UK International Centre for Birds of Prey and the Zoological Society of London - raised hopes of saving the birds from extinction.