Uganda’s National Drug Authority has admitted it knew HIV medicine was being used to fatten up animals in 2014 but did not warn the public.

The regulator’s senior drugs inspector Amos Atumanya told lawmakers in the country that it became aware anti-retrovirals were being given to pigs and chickens to treat them, and for humans, consuming small quantities of the drugs in food could be dangerous.

But the NDA has since tried to downplay his comments, as a spokesman said that if there was a health risk it would have warned the public, while the NDA’s job was to regulate drugs not food or animal feed.

The NDA’s report back in 2014, found that anti-retrovirals were mainly used to treat African swine fever which is also known as Pig Ebola and currently has no cure. It also verified claims that ARVs were being used to treat Newcastle disease in chicken.