This is a crazy but confirmed true story that had us all laughing in the Ukmedix newsroom. It appears that at the at Sichuan's Wolong Giant Panda Breeding Centre in China things have been going very well. Giant Pandas are famed for their inability to reproduce and every time a birth occurred it was a major event at the program. Recently however modern methods of getting the Pandas to have sex and reproduce have paid off and over thirty Giant panda cubs were born in 2006 a record for the Centre.

Millions of pounds have been spent trying to get the captive breeding perfected. Unlike some animals like rabbits that are famed for their reproductive abilities Pandas have a very laid back attitude to reproducing that is threatening them with extinction.

At one point the researchers at the Centre even resorted to administering Viagra for the male Pandas in the hope that the effects that it had on humans would be replicated on the Pandas. This experiment was a big failure and for 2 reasons. Firstly the drug just did not improve the erectile function of the Pandas and secondly even if it had, the researchers should have taken note that Viagra will not actually get the Panda to initiate sex on its own but would have merely enabled it to have more sex if it had had sex in the Viagra time window.

Viagra has only been tested in humans and the effect it has on animals is for the most part unknown. It could be very dangerous to give Viagra to an animal as it could effect blood pressure and even been fatal.

This is not the first time at Ukmedix that we have heard of animals being given Viagra as a report sometime back noted that a horse on a stud farm had been given Viagra to good effect though this story was never properly verified. Ukmedix strongly discourage the administration of Viagra to animals.