NEWS
Pennsylvania testing reduces steroid positives
Posted: Saturday, July 19, 2008 3:25 PM
by Don Clippinger
Testing for anabolic steroids in horses racing in Pennsylvania sharply decreased the number of positive findings since the commonwealth instituted its phased ban on the medications, the principal investigator for the Pennsylvania Horse Racing Commission’s Research Program said Saturday.
Speaking at the National Horsemen’s Benevolent and Protective Association’s summer meeting in Hershey, Pennsylvania, Lawrence R. Soma, V.M.D., said the incidents of positive findings are approaching zero as the initial penalty phase of the ban takes effect.
“In Pennsylvania, the playing field is level now,” said Soma, who is the Marilyn M. Simpson professor of large animal veterinary medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Veterinary School’s New Bolton Center and directs the work of the Pennsylvania Equine Toxicology and Research Center at West Chester University in suburban Philadelphia.
Pennsylvania initiated its steroid ban in April, and it will take full effect in October. According to the Pennsylvania guidelines, any steroid finding below 200 picograms per milliliter of blood is regarded as a negative finding. A picogram is one-trillionth of a gram.
The commonwealth’s work on steroid detection began in 2004, and a sampling of 900 horses racing in the state the following year found that approximately 60% were positive for steroids, which was an indication of how widespread their use was in racing.
Horsemen in Pennsylvania and surrounding states were informed in December that quantitative testing would begin in March, and 29 Thoroughbreds tested above the 200-picogram level that month. The total declined to 22 in April and then rose to 36 in May. Soma attributed that one-month spike to shippers from outside the state whose trainers were not fully cognizant of the ban. The total declined to 20 in June and fell to three in the first ten days of July.
The testing process is by no means inexpensive. George A. Maylin, Ph.D., director of the New York Racing and Wagering Board’s drug testing and research program at Cornell University and a member of the National HBPA panel on medication testing, said the equipment for steroid testing costs between $300,000 and $500,000.
In addition to the testing equipment, the West Chester laboratory has one operator and an assistant committed to testing for anabolic steroids.
In a presentation on the future of equine medications, Maylin decried the lack of funds for testing. As much more sophisticated medications are developed in the future, “without funding and perseverance, equine drug testing will be useless,” he said.
The third member of the medications panel, Thomas Tobin, Ph.D., professor at the University of Kentucky’s Gluck Equine Research Center, said the HBPA’s proposed national policy on drug testing and therapeutic-medication regulation is essentially complete. The document, now totaling 108 pages, was developed by Tobin, National HBPA Chief Executive Officer Remi Bellocq, and Kent Stirling, who heads the organization’s medications committee and is executive director of the Florida HBPA.
Tobin said he hopes to have the document published soon. He stressed that scientifically established withdrawal time guidelines have yet to be developed.
Don Clippinger is editorial director of Thoroughbred Times
