Saturday, March 02, 2013

Laboratory Advances Improve Equine Doping Testing

Thehorse.com - Full Article

By Christa Lesté-Lasserre
Feb 27, 2013 Article #31432

Metabolomics and transcriptomics. Big words for finding really tiny quantities of really tiny substances in really big animals--and both enormously useful. The products of cutting-edge research, these high-tech techniques are on the verge of becoming the very latest in equine drug screening at high level events.

Using metabolomics and/or transcriptomics, laboratory analysts can get a sort of "history" of drugs that have been in a horse's body--even if they've been completely eliminated already, according to Yves Bonnaire, PhD, director of France's national horse racing industry laboratory (reference laboratory for the Fédération Equestre Internationale [FEI]). Bonnaire is also a member of the advisory council on prohibited substances for the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities and was a guest lecturer at the FEI NSAIDs congress in 2010.

Such "history" is not meant for heavy-duty policing of therapeutic drugs used during events; rather, it is aimed at detecting new doping agents that continue to cause effects on the horse even when none of the drug is left in the animal's body...

Read more here:
http://www.thehorse.com/articles/31432/laboratory-advances-improve-equine-doping-testing?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=welfare-industry&utm_campaign=02-28-2013

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