Tuesday 28, May 2013
Racehorse Medication Rules To Be Uniformed
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Racehorse Medication Rules To Be Uniformed
Eight states — New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia and West Virginia — pledged on March 12 to adopt uniform medication rules for racehorses. The program, facilitated by the Thoroughbred Horsemen’s Association (THA), is slated to begin by the end of 2013 and be universally implemented by January 2014.
THA Chairman Alan Foreman said uniformity is critically important to those states of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast and we have 18 racetracks that operate within a 200-mile radius of each other, horses moving interstate, and in some instances horsemen who are racing horses in more than one state.
Bernard Dowd, DVM, a racetrack practitioner serving at Monmouth Park in New Jersey, Parx Racing in Pennsylvania, and Aqueduct Racecourse and Belmont Park in New York, welcoming the rules said,  sometimes I walk into a barn in the morning with horses going to three states in one day and added previously we’d have three different regulatory issues occurring in all three states, so this program is very welcome.
The catalyst for the agreement was in part a report from the New York Task Force on Racehorse Health and Safety.
Under the agreement, called the Mid Atlantic Uniform Medication and Testing Program, medications are divided into two categories: (1) controlled therapeutic substances and (2) prohibited substances. The 24 therapeutic medications are those that practicing veterinarians, regulatory veterinarians, industry chemists and pharmacologists say are routinely used and necessary to treat illness or injury in horses. Among the organizations consulted were the American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP), the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium, and the Association of Racing Commissioners International.
The list of 24 permitted medications includes:
Drug | Dose/Route | Withdrawal (no pre-race treatment within) | Threshold |
Acepromazine | 0.05 mg/kg IV (single dose) | 48 hours | 10 ng/ml HEPS (applicable metabolite) in urine |
Betamethasone | 9 mg IA only—1 joint | 7 days | 10 pg/ml of plasma or serum |
Butorphanol | 0.1 mg/kg IV (single dose) | 48 hours | 300 ng/ml of total butorphanol in urine, or 2 ng/ml of free butorphanol in plasma |
Clenbuterol | 0.8 µg/kg PO twice daily | 14 days | 140 pg/ml of urine or LOD in plasma or serum |
Dantrolene | 500 mg PO | 48 hours | 100 pg/ml 5-hydroxydantrolene in plasma or serum |
Detomidine | 40 µg/kg single sublingual dose | 72 hours | LOD in plasma or 1 ng/ml of carboxydetomidine in urine |
Dexamethasone | 0.05 mg/kg IV, IM, PO | 72 hours | 5 pg/ml of plasma or serum |
Diclofenac (topical) | 5-in ribbon topically | 48 hours | 5 ng/ml of plasma or serum |
DMSO | PO, IV | 48 hours | 10 µg/ml of plasma or serum |
Firocoxib | 0.1 mg/kg PO daily for four days | 14 days | 20 ng/ml of plasma or serum |
Flunixin | 1.1 mg/kg IV single dose | 24 hours | 20 ng/ml of plasma or serum |
Furosemide | Maximum 500 mg IV single dose | 4 hours | 100 ng/ml of plasma or serum |
Glycopyrrolate | 1 mg IV single dose | 48 hours | 3 pg/ml of plasma or serum |
Ketoprofen | 2.2 mg/kg IV single dose | 24 hours | 10 ng/ml of plasma or serum |
Lidocaine | 200 mg SC | 72 hours | 20 pg/ml of total 30H-lidocaine in plasma |
Mepivacaine | 0.07 mg/kg SC single dose | 72 hours | 10 ng/ml of total hydroymepivacaine in urine or LOD in plasma |
Methocarbamol | 0.15 mg/kg single dose IV or 5 g orally | 48 hours | 1 ng/ml of plasma or serum |
Methylprednisolone* (IA only) | 100 mg—1 joint | 21 days* | 100 pg/ml in plasma or serum |
Omeprazole | 3.9 mg/kg PO single dose | 24 hours | 1 ng/ml of urine |
Phenylbutazone (IV only) | 2.2 mg/kg IV single dose | 24 hours | 2 µg/ml of plasma or serum |
Prednisolone | 1 mg/kg PO | 48 hours | 1 ng/ml plasma or serum |
Procaine penicillin** | IM | Entry** | 25 ng/ml of plasma |
Triamcinolone acetonide | 9 mg IA—1 joint | 7 days | 100 pg/ml of plasma or serum |
Xylazine | IV | 48 hours | 0.01 ng/mg of plasma or serum |
*Methylprednisolone following intraarticular administration of 100 mg can be detected at 100 pg/ml for up to 21 days. Its use is therefore problematic.
**Mandatory six-hour surveillance of horse prior to post. Administration must be reported to the commission.
Of these 24 therapeutic medications, Furosemide is the only one permitted to be given on race day. And it must be administered under controlled circumstances by a veterinarian designated by the state racing commission to perform that service.
We felt if we had uniformity, it would close a lot of the loopholes, improve public confidence and perception of racing integrity, and clarify for the owners, trainers and veterinarians what the ground rules were, said Kathleen Anderson, DVM, vice chair of the AAEP Racing Committee and a Maryland practitioner and added uniformity thus became a primary objective.
The rules governing corticosteroids will help clarify the environment for veterinarians and improve their ability to assess horses going into races, Anderson believes.
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