Pandas get eye disease; experts can't tell why

Twelve giant pandas in Sichuan province have contracted an eye disease, medical experts said recently.

Netizens have raised concerns about the condition of the pandas since January, when images posted online by people who had visited the Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding showed an animal with white scabs around its eyes.

In January, a team of experts led by Luo Qingli, an ophthalmologist at Chengdu Huaxia Eye hospital, and Ran Yuping, a dermatologist at West China Hospital in Chengdu, were brought in to determine the source of the problem.