Mainland researchers have invented a feed additive that could usher in an agricultural revolution leading to bigger, healthier and leaner pigs.
The scientists say the feed is made with an additive with similarities to Viagra and that is entirely natural, as it is made out of rice.
'Don't worry. It is absolutely safe,' said Yin Yulong, a professor at the Institute of Subtropical Agriculture at the Chinese Academy of Sciences who led the study.
'Many people will fear its safety because some other feed additives, such as ractopamine and clenbuterol, have a very bad reputation on the mainland. Some of them were synthesised with low-grade industrial chemicals and they destroyed the animal's metabolism and poisoned many consumers.
'Our arginine activator additive is different. It is natural. It is extracted from rice.'
Professor Yin said the research was inspired by Louis Ignarro, Robert Furchgott and Ferid Murad, recipients of the 1998 Nobel Prize for Medicine, who found that a higher presence of nitric oxide in blood could make some animals, including humans, grow larger and healthier and have a more productive sex life.