Jamaican athletes have undergone an "extremely unusual" number of doping tests since arriving in Beijing for the Olympic Games, potentially harming their performance, the team's chef-de-mission said.

More than 32 blood and urine tests have been held on Jamaican athletes in the past five days alone, a number that has alarmed team officials.

"We are concerned that this could have a serious effect on our athletes," Don Anderson told Reuters. "We feel there has been an exceedingly long list of tests and we find this unusual."

Former 100m world record holder Asafa Powell has complained drugs testers had come calling so often and taken so much blood it could have an impact on his performance.

He said team-mates Michael Frater and Usain Bolt, the current 100 metres world record holder, were also under constant scrutiny from testers.

"There is certainly far more testing," Anderson said. "It is a major concern to us and they (testers) have taken a lot of blood."

Some Jamaican athletes were tested as often as three times in the past seven days, Anderson said.

"This is not a protest but we are just saying that it is rather unusual," he said.