Global News - September 2007
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Malaysia introduces kit to detect illegal bear products
Tue 18 September 2007 17:00 UK — Asia
Wildlife officials in Malaysia have begun using kits, similar to pregnancy tests, to check if traditional Chinese medicines sold in the country contain products from endangered animals.
Local media have reported that Wildlife Department enforcement director Misliah Mohamed Basir revealed that the new kits allow officials to instantly check whether products on sale contain illegal products like bear bile.
The kits work by detecting if traditional medicines contain any bear protein and allow for much speedier prosecution of those trying to traffic products which contain illegal elements.
Wildlife official Loo Kean Seong told the Associated Press that there had already been successful arrests using the new kit.
He added: "It helps a lot. With the kits, we can do our enforcement there and then."
Both Australia and Canada have already issued officials with the testing kits in a bid to stamp out the use of bear products in traditional medicines.
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