A new weapon in the fight against the illegal trade in threatened species was to be unveiled by conservation groups yesterday at a meeting of the world's biggest convention on protecting biodiversity.
The device allows officials to test suspicious goods on the spot to determine whether they have been prepared using ingredients from rare species.
The test -- which works in a similar way to a pregnancy test -- was developed with British DNA forensics specialists to combat the use of tissues from protected animals, especially bears, in traditional medicines, which make up a lucrative market in Asia. The procedure reveals whether goods contain ingredients from species protected under international trade laws by detecting specific proteins found in the animals.
Trials of the test kit in Australia and Canada have identified 16 cases where illegal products were bound for the market. It was to be officially launched at the UN Conference on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) yesterday.
All eight species of bear are protected under international law. Some, such as the Asiatic black bear and brown bear found in China and elsewhere, are illegal to export or import under any circumstances, while others can only be sold across borders under tight restrictions.
But conservation groups claim the high market value of bear products -- including bile, which is used in a range of traditional medicines -- drives a substantial illegal market for the products.
Estimates from the World Society for the Protection of Animals suggest that 12,000 bears are raised in farms in China, South Korea and Vietnam. Although the bear farms can legally supply local firms, they are suspected of selling illegally to other countries.
Consumption of bear bile has risen in China since the farms were introduced in the early 1980s, from about 50kg annually to 4,000kg in 1998.
Bears kept in captivity are wounded in the abdomen and fitted with a tube to extract bile from their gall bladders.
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