Chinese Cops Arrest At Least 22 - Fed Pigs With Additive Poisonous To Humans - Reuters

[hatrack]

Chinese authorities have arrested at least 22 people in connection with the use of illegal additives fed to pigs.

Fourteen people, including pig farmers, were detained in Henan province, one of the country's major breeding areas, after the animals tested positive for additives poisonous to humans. Police have detained eight others in Nanjing city, where a slaughterhouse was found to have handled tainted meat.

State television this week named Henan Shuanghui Investment & Development, the country's top meat processor, as one of the main companies that had sold the contaminated pork. Shuanghui, which counts Goldman Sachs among its investors, has shut the processor affected by the contamination.

The government is investigating more than 1,300 pig farms and 130 feed and veterinary drug stores, Xinhua said, and at least six officials and workers at local animal quarantine stations have been fired or suspended from work.

Ed. - emphasis added.

EDIT

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/mar/17/china-pig-farmers-arrested

[Heywood J]

1. Hmm...

The pigs were fed the additives – described by state media as either ractopamine and/or clenbuterol – to produce lean meat.

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Ractopamine

The feed additive Paylean, produced by the U.S. company Elanco Animal Health, owned previously by Eli Lilly and Company, contains ractopamine hydrochloride. Paylean was approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration on December 22, 1999

Clenbuterol appears to have been taken by MLB players as a performance enhancer.