An orangutan cub named Liu Mao is checked for kidney stones in an animal hospital in China
A Chinese doctor scans a chimpanzee for kidney stones
Posted on 09/30/2008 6:26:32 PM PDT by TigerLikesRooster
Now animals fall victim to China toxic milk scandal as officials admit cover-up during Olympics
By Mail Foreign Service
Last updated at 11:43 AM on 26th September 2008
The 'tainted milk' scandal, which has claimed the lives of four infants and left more than 50,000 children ill in China, is now putting zoo animals in danger.
Two orangutans, aged one and three, and a lion cub are now reported to be showing signs of kidney stones after being fed the milk powder for more than a year.
The animals are from the Hangzhou Safari Park World near Shanghai.
All had been fed with milk powder made by the Sanlu Group, which is at the centre of the scandal in which 53,000 children in China have become sick.
The news came with the revelation that Chinese officials, suppressing 'bad news' during the Olympic games, had ordered a cover-up of the scandal.
Four babies have already died from conditions brought on by drinking the milk - which was contaminated by melamine, a compound used in making plastics and added to cheat nutrition tests.
A spokesman for Hangzhou Safari Park said: 'The milk powder crisis made us very worried about the health situation of baby animals.
'We stopped feeding with Sanlu after it was found to be tainted.'
The company has said the infants became sick after drinking milk contaminated by melamine, a compound used in making plastics and added to cheat nutrition tests.
'The crystallisation now is very small, but it will grow bigger and then block the urine,' Zhang Xu, a doctor from the animal hospital where the two gorillas were being treated, was quoted as saying.
'No visible stones have been found so far,' Zhang added.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
A Chinese doctor scans a chimpanzee for kidney stones
Ping!
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