KUALA LUMPUR, Sept. 17 (Xinhua) -- After Australia and Canada, Malaysia is the third country in the world to run a test to find out whether medicines contain bear products in an effort to save lives of bears, local media reported on Monday.

    Similar to a pregnancy test, the bear detection kit can detect bear albumin, a common protein found in many body tissues, in less than 10 minutes.

    The kit is being tested in Peninsular Malaysia by the Wildlife and National Parks Department in the hope of curbing the illegal trade in bear products, the New Straits Times said.

    Wildlife Department enforcement director Misliah Bashir said enforcement officers had been testing products sold in traditional medicine shops.

    The presence of bear albumin has been found in some medicines on sale in Malaysia.

    The kit was introduced earlier this year at the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species in The Hague, the Netherlands, by the World Society for the Protection of Animals, an international animal welfare organization.

    Bear bile is used for a range of conditions including muscular aches, fever and inflammation.

    A catheter is inserted into the bear's abdomen and attached to the gall bladder. Several centimeters of the tube is left sticking out of the abdomen. This is extremely painful and the risk of infection is high.