Olympic Pigs: allevamenti segreti di maiali bio x non far risultare positivi gli atleti al doping

Secret steroid-free pigs to go on the menu for athletes
By Mure Dickie in Beijing and Geoff Dyer in Shanghai

Published: August 6 2007 03:00, ft.com

The official pork supplier to the 2008 Beijing Olympics is to rear
organically fed pigs at secret locations to provide athletes with safe
meat guaranteed not to cause them to fail doping tests, write Mure
Dickie in Beijing and Geoff Dyer in Shanghai.

News of the extraordinary extra efforts being taken by supplier
Qianxihe Food Group comes amid international concern about the safety
of Chinese food, drugs and other products following a string of
scandals.

Organisers of the Beijing Games are keen to reassure participants they
have no need to worry about the quality of food served in the Olympic
Village.

Niu Shengnan, a Qianxihe spokesman, said the use of growth hormones in
pig-rearing was standard in China, but eating meat produced this way
could conceivably cause competitors to fail anti-doping tests.

He said no steroids would be used on the Olympic pigs, which would be
chosen from carefully monitored parents and only fed organically grown
feed.

Such an approach was expected to add from one to three months to the
six months usually needed to rear a pig for slaughter, but Qianxihe
was willing to bear the extra cost, he said.

"We are the exclusive supplier to the Olympics. This is a political
duty and you shouldn't talk about cost when it comes to political
duty," Mr Niu said. Qianxihe, which uses the English-language brand
Lucky Crane, declined to reveal the location of the farms it was using
for the Olympic pork.

"From the perspective of terrorism prevention, the pig farms are
secret and cannot announce their names, conduct publicity or allow
entry by strangers until after the Olympics," it said.

The official pork supplier to the 2008 Beijing Olympics is to rear
organically-fed pigs at secret locations to provide athletes with safe
meat guaranteed not to cause them to fail doping tests.

Organisers of the Beijing games, which open on August 8 next year, are
keen to reassure participants they have no need to worry about the
quality of food served in the Olympic Village.

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