Animals sick from Chinese milk

Zoo keepers sent the animals for check-ups after hearing of the crisis

Two baby orang-utans and a lion cub have become the latest victims of China's contaminated milk crisis.

The animals, at at Hangzhou Zoo near Shanghai, developed kidney stones after being fed milk powder tainted with the industrial chemical melamine.

Chinese media report that the animals had been fed on milk powder made by Sanlu Group for more than a year.

Sanlu Group is at the heart of the milk crisis which has seen four Chinese babies die and another 53,000 fall ill.

Concerned keepers sent the animals for a check up after hearing about the milk contamination and have now stopped feeding with Sanlu milk.

The orang-utans and the lion are the only animals to have developed kidney stones and are being treated for the condition.

Officials at the Beijing Zoo and zoos in the other major cities of Shanghai, Guangzhou and Xian said they had no cases of animals sickened from milk powder, the Associated Press reported.

An official at the world's most famous panda reserve, the Wolong Nature Reserve, said the baby pandas there were not fed milk formula.

Melamine, an industrial chemical used in making plastics, has been found in a growing range of Chinese dairy products.

The head of China's food authority has been forced to resign and the government has promised to tighten up its safety standards.

Meanwhile countries across Asia have recalled a variety of milk products.