JINAN - Agricultural authorities in E China said Thursday they had conducted tests on livestock after media reports claimed sheep had been fed an illegal additive to make their meat leaner.

Lijin county has sent six inspection teams to test every sheep in the county, a major sheep meat production base in Shandong province, according to Han Xuewen, deputy director of the county's animal husbandry bureau.

The tests were ordered by the Ministry of Agriculture after Wednesday's media reports said farmers in the county were adding the illegal fat-burning chemical clenbuterol to sheep feed.

The reports focused on the town of Yanwo, where 90 percent of the county's 260,000 sheep are raised.

The county previously launched inspections in April, finding four farmers in Yanwo had fed clenbuterol to their livestock. The farmers were each fined 20,000 yuan ($3,100).

Earlier this year, farmers in Henan province were discovered to have fed clenbuterol to pigs.