CN: Animals Asia press release - bear bile health concerns

[Guest guest]

*MEDIA RELEASE*

 

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*Monday 22 September 2008*

 

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*Animals Asia calls for action as pathologists warn of contaminants in

bear bile*

 

Animals Asia Foundation has called on the Chinese authorities to look

urgently into the possible harmful side-effects of contaminated bear

bile sold as a cure-all in traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). The

foundation has also relayed its concerns to the Hong Kong Secretary for

Food and Health, Dr York Chow, and the World Health Organisation.

 

Animals Asia’s China Relations Director Christie Yang said she had

decided to go public in the wake of the contaminated milk powder scandal

that has left three infants dead and more than 6,000 ill. Ms Yang said

experts had compelling health concerns about the bile taken from farmed

bears as it was riddled with impurities, including faeces, urine, blood

and pus.

 

She said that together with Chinese and Vietnamese pathologists, Animals

Asia was compiling a growing dossier of evidence that the bears tapped

for their bile were developing liver cancers at an alarming rate.

Asiatic black bears (or moon bears) held in captivity rarely contract

liver tumours unless they are very old, but almost half of the rescued

bears that have died were euthanised because of liver cancer.

 

Animals Asia Founder and CEO Jill Robinson said the authorities should

be asking what the bile taken from such sick bears was doing to the

health of humans who consumed it. “The bears’ livers and gall bladders

are often severely diseased, the bile contaminated with pus, blood and

even faeces. A healthy bear’s bile is as fluid as water and ranges in

colour from bright yellowy-orange to green. Our vets have described bile

leaking from the gall bladders of our rescued bears as ‘black sludge’.”

 

The prized ingredient in bear bile, ursodeoxycholic acid (UDCA), is used

by TCM practitioners for a myriad of complaints, everything from

hangovers to haemorrhoids. However, UDCA can be synthesised easily under

laboratory conditions – the UDCA produced is pure, clean and reliable.

 

“For two years now, we have been telling the authorities of our

concerns, but still nothing is being done. We can’t just stand by when

so many families have been affected by the milk contamination scandal.

Here we have a very similar scenario; people who take bear bile as a

traditional medicine cure have a right to know just what it is that they

are consuming,” Ms Robinson said.

 

Dr Wang Sheng Xian, a Chengdu pathologist, who is analysing the livers

of bears that have died from liver cancer said: “The more I learn about

the extraction of bile from bears, the more I would never recommend this

kind of drug to my family and friends. I personally think we are better

to use alternative drugs and never extract bile from bears … this kind

of drug could be harmful to people.” There are many effective and

affordable synthetic alternatives as well as more than 50 herbal

alternatives.

 

“Although I respect TCM, what I have seen from the samples from caged

bears makes me doubt that products like this work. Bear bile products

produced by farmers are only processed by baking the bile into a powder

and not refined. This kind of preparation does not eliminate the

contaminants in the bile. As we can see, the bile causes very sick bears

– can we use this kind of bile for medicine for humans, especially as it

is baked at a low temperature? I personally think we had better use

alternative drugs and never extract bile from bears,” Dr Wang said.

 

A Vietnamese pathologist has also expressed grave concerns for the health of

both humans and bears after conducting clinical examinations of the damaged gall

bladders of three moon bears rescued from bile farms by Animals Asia.

 

Dr Dang van Duong, Chief Pathologist at the Bach Mai Hospital in Hanoi

said he was shocked by the condition of the bears and urged consumers to

think twice before taking the bile from such diseased animals.

 

Dr Duong made the comments after conducting histo-pathological

examinations of the gall bladder specimens of three bears that recently

underwent cholecystectomies (removal of the gall bladder) at Animals

Asia’s new Moon Bear Rescue Centre at Tam Dao near Hanoi. He found a

substantial thickening of the wall of the gall bladder, a consequence of

the bile extraction process.

 

Bears on farms in China, where bear farming is still legal, are

subjected to the so-called “humane” free-dripping method of bile

extraction on a daily basis. A permanent hole is cut into the bear’s

abdomen through to its gall bladder. To extract the bile, the farmer

pokes a tube into the hole and lets the bile drip out. Some farms still

use permanently implanted catheters to drain the bile – a method that is

now against China’s regulations.

 

In Vietnam, bile is extracted with the assistance of an ultrasound

machine, catheter and medicinal pump. The bears are drugged – usually

with ketamine – restrained with ropes and have their abdomens repeatedly

jabbed with four-inch needles until the gall bladder is found. The bile

is then removed with a catheter and pump.

 

After examining the gall bladder of one of the Vietnam bears, and

concluding that she had “severe chronic cholecystitis”, Dr Duong said:

“I am wondering how this bear could have survived, because if this was a

human sample, the person would have been dead long ago.” The other bears

to undergo cholecystectomies had similarly degenerative gall bladders.

 

Dr Duong is collaborating with the Dean of Sydney University's medical

faculty in establishing online pathology between Sydney University/Royal

North Shore Hospital in Sydney and Bach Mai Hospital. His pathology

department provides pathology consultancy services to the French

International Hospital in Hanoi and is a recognised reference laboratory.

 

Last year, Animals Asia’s veterinary team released the report,

“Compromised health and welfare of bears in China’s bear bile farming

industry, with special reference to the free-dripping bile extraction

technique”.

 

The report, which was widely distributed among both conservation and

health authorities on the mainland, stated: “AAF’s veterinarians

hypothesise that the etiology of the cancer [in farmed bears] is related

to the chronic inflammation, infection and trauma caused by bile

extraction. Research is under way to investigate this hypothesis. In

another context, consideration must be given to the potential effects on

humans of the consumption of bear bile that is so contaminated with pus

and inflammatory material.”

 

Ms Yang said senior members of Animals Asia had met with and conveyed

their concerns a number of times to various departments in Beijing and

Sichuan and the foundation was seeking a meeting with Sichuan

authorities next week.

 

--

Angela Leary

Media Manager

Animals Asia Foundation

2/F, Room 04-05,

Nam Wo Hong Building

148 Wing Lok Street,

Sheung Wan, Hong Kong

Tel: (852) 2791 2225

http://www.animalsasia.org/