A British veterinary ophthalmologist put her skills to good use in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, last week.

Over the past decade Dr Claudia Hartley has conducted about 25 operations on dogs each week, but last week she adapted her expertise to treat Asiatic black bears for the first time.

Hosted by the Animals Asia Foundation, she gave first-step eye checks to 15 Asiatic black bears' at Sichuan Longqiao Black Bear Rescue Center during and will return to operate on some of them in February.

Some of the bears' problems, such as lens luxation, might be caused by inflammation in the abdomen, a common problem caused by unsanitary bile milking methods on farmed bears.

"To totally prevent these farmed bears from getting these eye problems, we need to end bear farming in China," a staff member of the center said.

(China Daily November 25, 2008)