Animals and plants often seized

In the course of 2006 several indangered animals and plants, mostly imported from foreign countries were seized at Frankfurt airport.

A total of more than 100.000 protected animals and plants were imported.

The amount of animals was relatively low. 5600 live animals compared to 101.00 live plants, infringing import regulations or being protected species.

In several cases drugs made of animal and plant products were seized. This points out that the Asian market for traditional medical products is continuously growing. Among these products are snakes dranked in alcohol or geckos used as aphrodisiac in the traditional Asiatic medicine.

Most of the illegal imports came from China. According to statistics more than 30 % of the imports in the year 2006 came from the Peoples Republic of China.