Bear Bile Being Promoted by China as Treatment for COVID-19

China has started to ban wildlife trade and consumption due to mounting pressure from its citizens, according to National Geographic and Wildlife Campaigner for the EIA (or Environmental Investigation Agency) and China Specialist Aron White. However, the Chinese government still recommends the use of "Tan Re Qing", an injectable cocktail that includes bear bile, for treating COVID-19.

On March 4, the National Health Commission of China included "Tan Re Qing" in a list of treatment recommendations against COVID-19; it also includes Western and Chinese traditional medicines.

Since the 8th century, Chinese traditional medicine has been using bile from bears. They obtain this from brown bears and Asiatic black bears. The bile has high ursodeoxycholic acid or ursodiol levels, clinically used for helping dissolve gallstones and against liver disease. A synthetic form of the compound has been available all over the world for decades.

Currently, the WHO or World Health Organization declares that there is no cure against COVID-19.

Chinese traditional medical practitioners use Tan Re Qing against upper respiratory tract infections and bronchitis, according to this study. University of Minnesota professor Clifford Steer studied ursodeoxycholic acid. He states that it can maintain the life of cells, has anti-inflammatory properties, and can calm the immune response. He says it may alleviate COVID-19 symptoms, although he adds that he does not know of any evidence that the bile from bears is effective against it.

According to National Geographic, bears in captivity in China can have their bile legally harvested and used; it is banned if the bile comes from wild animals. Bile importation is banned as well. White says that illegal bear bile is being obtained from the wild in China, as well as imported from both captive and wild bears from North Korea, Laos, and Vietnam. This trade is despite the CITES protection against international commercial trade given to Asiatic black bears, which is among the most commonly farmed bear species for bile.

White says that consumers consistently prefer bile from wild bears, which they regard as more potent. It means, White adds, that even a legal market of bile from captive bears does not reduce the pressure on wild bear populations.

Non-profit organization Animals Asia is dedicated to stopping farming for bear bile. It states that since bile is extracted from the gall bladder using a syringe, pipe, or catheter, all extraction methods are invasive, causing severe infection, pain, and suffering to bears.

Animals Asia also states that disease and neglect commonly occur on bear farms; thus, bear bile consumers run the risk of ingesting the bile from sick bears contaminated with feces, blood, urine, pus, and harmful bacteria.

Chinese traditional medicine is mostly plant-based and has existed for millennia, according to National Geographic. The WHO recognized its efficacy in 2018 when it included Chinese traditional medicine diagnoses in the WHO medical compendium. China's Ministry of Science and Technology stressed the use of traditional medicine, and 85% of Chinese COVID-19 patients have been given herbal treatment.

White states that wildlife farms cause risks to human health due to animals being crammed in small cages and people coming into contact with them. He adds that most Chinese traditional medicine has no wild animal components; it does not have to threaten wildlife. Steer says that what a COVID-19 vaccine is truly needed.