Chinese scientists are experimenting with mixing medicines with the food and drink of wild giant pandas to treat the animals' internal parasites.
A survey on the health of wild giant pandas showed some of them are infested with more than 20 kinds of parasites. Some pandas have above-normal levels of parasites and may suffer from intestinal inflammation, dropsy and metabolic disorders.
Scientists from the No.4 Military Medical University put an anti-parasite remedy in cuts on fresh bamboo shoots and in streams in panda habitats at an altitude of 2,000 meters (6562 feets). The plan was when the animals came for their daily food and drink, they unknowingly took the medicine.
Three days after the medicine was laid, scientists confirmed the pandas had taken it. The numbers of parasites killed increased.
But as pandas may not return to the same bamboo patch and stream for a very long time, the remedy left in the water may weaken and be less effective.
To solve this problem, Chinese scientists plan to work with foreign scientists to make a new kind of slow dissolution treatment.
(People's Daily September 18, 2002)
