Checking for bear bile in Chinese medicine

[Owlscrying]

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia - Malaysia has begun using kits, similar to pregnancy tests, to check for bile and other ingredients made from bears in traditional Chinese medicines.

Wildlife Department enforcement director Misliah Mohamed Basir says officers are using the kits in a program started early this month to check traditional medicine shops. They want to make sure the remedies do not contain extracts from the organs of bears, which are protected by law.

Wildlife official Loo Kean Seong says the medicine to be tested is crushed and mixed with a chemical liquid, into which a test stick is dipped. After a few minutes, the stick indicates negative or positive.

"It helps a lot. With the kits we can do our enforcement there and then," he said, adding officers had already confiscated some medicine samples.

Trafficking in bears, which are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species, or CITES, is punishable in Malaysia by up to three years in jail and a fine.

Traditional Chinese medicines are popular among Malaysia's Chinese minority. Many Chinese believe remedies made from some animals, like bears and tigers, can be consumed as cures or aphrodisiacs.

It is estimated farms across Asia keep at least 12,000 bears, often in small cages, mainly to farm them for their bile. Traditional Chinese medicine with bear bile is used for conditions including fever and inflammation.

The bile is drained through a tube that is inserted through a live bear's abdomen and into its gall bladder. Many bears die from the painful process.

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