By: Dr. Gary Pusillo

………And this little Piggy went wee wee  wee  all the way to your house. Open any popular pet product catalogue and you can buy your own little piece of a “little piggy” from China.
Just when you thought melamine in Chinese products was enough, they are shipping piggy parts laced with clenbuterol!
Currently there are reports that human consumers of pork products in China became ill and ending up hospitalized with stomach pains and heart palpitations after consuming pork laced with Clenbuterol (Reed business 2011)
In September 2006 more than 330 people in Shanghai were reported to have been poisoned by eating pork contaminated by Clenbuterol that had been fed to the animals to keep their meat lean – as it increases the rate at which body fat is metabolized  ( Reed Business 2011)
Clenbuterol is used by some pig producers to improve their profitability by providing a leaner pinker color stable meat. The Chinese government will not state how many cases of contaminated meat or related illness occur annually (Reed business 2011), but just like the melamine situation, someone knows both here and in China.
Piggy parts from clenbuterol fed swine tend to look fresher and more desirable for longer periods of time.

Oral administration of clenbuterol in dogs has been looked at by Zulfikar  et al 2005. The treatment group received oral administration of clenbuterol (8 μg/kg, 2x/day) during this period. The clenbuterol group increased significantly in body weight as compared with the control group (P < 0.05).

Kato et al 2005, found that oral administration of clenbuterol in dogs increased heart rate; the maximum responses were observed 1 to 2 h after administration and lasted for over 3 h.

Literature cited
 
Kato H, Nakayama K, Takata Y, Kurihara J, Sakai T, Iwata K, Yamamoto I Bronchodilating and cardiovascular effects of intraduodenally and orally administered clenbuterol in dogs
Arzneimittelforschung 1985; 35:1037-41.

Reed Business. 2011. China battles pork meat laced with a poisonous drug.  AllAboutFeed.net  27 Jan 2011

Zulfikar Sharif, M.D.*, Robert L. Hammond, Ph.D.*, Philip McDonald*, Richard Vander Heide, Ph.D, M.D.†, Larry W. Stephenson, M.D.*  2005. The functional and histological effects of clenbuterol on the canine skeletal muscle ventricle JSR Journal of surgical research.Vol.123, Issue 1 pg 89-95