FarmVet's Blog

During the FEI General Assembly, November 2009 in Denmark, Copenhagen, the new FEI Equine Anti-Doping and Equine Medication control Rules have been accepted. These new rules will be applied from 1st of January 2010.

There will be two sets of rules:

One rule for doping: A stricter approach for doping will be applied. Substances that are doping will be called “Banned Substances.”

One rule for medication: Horses’ welfare will be taken in consideration.

Substances that are not allowed medication will be called “Prohibited Medication Substances.”

The scope of actors that can be held responsible under the rules has been expanded to include support personnel such as veterinarians, trainers, grooms, etc. Previously only the rider could be held responsible. The standard sanction for an Equine Anti-doping violation is two years, which is consistent with the 2009 WADA code. This is a significant increase from the prior rules.

There will be 3 different lists:

1. A banned substance list: This is a list containing active ingredients that have no legitimate use in Equine medicine and have a high potential use for abuse. This list contains many substances that are ethically inappropriate, like Hormonal products, human antidepressants, anti psychotics, nervous system stimulants, blood pres­sure drugs.

2. A prohibited medication substances list: A list of medication that is prohibited in Competition, and made up of all known substances which are recognized as therapeutic and commonly used substances considered in Equine medicine, like anti-inflammatory, local anaesthetics, bronchodilators. Clearly substances on this list may also enhance performance depending on the timing and size of dose.

3. List with Threshold Substances: Horses may compete with the presence of certain substances in their tissue, body fluids or excreta for which threshold levels/ ratios are listed in this list. A threshold level means the point at which the dosage becomes medication.

 Thresholds only apply to:

• Substances endogenous to the horse
• Substances arising from plants traditionally grazed during normal cultivation, processing or treat­ment, storage or transport.
• Substances in equine feed arising from contamination during normal cultivation, processing or treatment, storage or transport.

Some medicines are mentioned on list 2 and list 3, which means they can be used in certain limitations. If you overdose they then become a prohibited medication.

F.e. :

• Phenylbutazone, up to a limit of 8 mcg/ml in serum
• Boldenone, 0.015 microgram per milliliter urine from male Horse
• DMSO, 15 mcgr per ml in urine or 1 mcg per ml plasma
• Estranediol, 0.045 mcg per ml in urine in male horses
• Hydrocortisone, 1 mcg per ml urine
• Salicylic Acis, 750 mcg per ml urine or 6.5 mcg per ml plasma
• Testosterone, O.O2 mcg per ml urine from geldings, or 0.055 mcg per ml urine from fillies and mares.
• Flunixin, up to a limit of 500 mcg/ ml in serum

FarmVet would like to remind our customers than none of our Cavalor products are prohibited for the new FEI doping rules. Of course they do have products that contain substances arising from plants (Threshold Substances), but those doses are all below the threshold substances, when people follow the doses mentioned on the Cavalor packing. Cavalor is following this regulation very strict (we have very close contact with the analyzing labs) and we do maximum efforts to guarantee a complete dope free range.

Tip: Use Cavalor Freebute instead of Phenylbutazone (Bute)

Research has proven that Cavalor FreeBute is less aggressive for the stomach. It does not cause Gastric Ulcers (as Phenylbutazone does). In the Netherlands, there is even concern that frequently Phenylbutazone may cause cancer in equines.

For more information, please click on the following link:

http://www.fei.org/Athletes_AND_Horses/News/Pages/summ.aspx