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Because we could no longer cope with the increase in the number of questions and fanciers had to wait (too) long for an answer, we have decided to close off our question section. Furthermore, the great majority of new questions submitted has already been answered in the past.
As we want to keep offering interesting medical information to our readers, we will now concentrate more on those general Ask The Vet articles which have already been published on our homepage in the past. In addition, our Ask The Vet archive, which contains numerous questions and answers, is a mine of information which will still remain at your disposal.
performance enhancing drugs
odpowiedź od: Lanckriet Ruben / Baert Kris
Dear Dr. Michael Pys, Here in Belgium 4 kinds of substances are tested and this through research on droppings mostly after races with the winners and also randomly before or during the racing season. The bags and everything have to be sealed and signed and the samples are tested (legal issues have to be taken into account). The four substances are corticosteroids, anabolic steroids, NSAID's and diuretics (masking substances). With pigeons corticosteroids are really the most important substances to test on. I have sent this e-mail also to a collegue-pharmacologist who will probably be able to help you more on how these substances can be tested or can give you contacts of people that know more about it.
Kind regards Ruben Lanckriet
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Hello Dr. Pys, These substances are tested with liquid chromatography with mass spectrometry in pigeon droppings and these analysis are done in a laboratory of the government. Dr. D. Courtheyn (in cooperation with Dr. H.F. De Brabander) has published several articles on this technique, not only in pigeons, but also in excreta in other animal species. You’ll find articles when looking for these authors in the Web of Science or in Pubmed.
Best regards, Kris Baert
Could you please tell me if linco spectin injectable is a banned substance as I've been told it contains cortisone?
odpowiedź od: Ruben Lanckriet
Dear Sir,
Linco-spectin is a combination of two antibiotics that work synergetic. It reaches a high tissue concentration in upper airways so it is mostly used for respiratory problems. It is effective for a lot of the bacteria that are usually (partially) responsible for upper respiratory inflammation. There is no cortisone in this product, so it is no doping. It must be used after veterinary diagnosis and prescription.
Kind regards
can you tell us any known banned drugs that may have been used to enhance performance in racing?
odpowiedź od: Dr Ruben Lanckriet
Dear Madam/Sir,
In the past cortisones have been frequently used to enhance racing performance. Now these substances are banned and controls are made regularly. It is very easy to find at very low concentrations, so the use of these drugs is now luckily much less than it used to be.
Kind regards
