Hair Testing – What It’s Good For, What It’s Not Good For

After last weekend's revelation that Kentucky Derby winner Medina Spirit had tested positive for betamethasone post-race, trainer Bob Baffert outlined a few different methods for figuring out how the drug got into the horse's system, including hair testing the horse to look for the presence of the drug. On Tuesday, it seemed the need for investigative work was through, since Baffert admitted the horse had indeed been treated with a topical prescription that contained betamethasone.

Still, his suggestion raised questions about how hair testing can help in cases like that of Medina Spirit. Many have hoped hair testing would be the next great advance in racing's drug testing program, able to detect what blood tests cannot.

Hold your horses, experts say.

Using hair to detect the presence of drugs works because a stand of hair contains melanin, which gives it color and which carries a slight negative ionic charge. That means that when drugs go through a horse's system, those with a slightly positive ionic charge bind to the melanin of the hair at the base where it's growing out from the horse's skin. Laboratories can find the resulting band of the drug in question sitting crossways inside the hair shaft if they have a sample of the hair. Horses with black hair will bind drugs easily; those with less melanin in their hair, like grays and roans, do not retain drug remnants in that hair as readily.

Only the drugs with a slightly positive charge are going to bind to hair well enough to be detected. Dr. Rick Sams, equine drug testing expert and former lab director for HFL Sport Science, said this works well for certain types of drugs.

“Clenbuterol has a negative charge on it, it binds to melanin and it can be detected at a very low level because a lot of it binds to the hair,” said Sams. “Negatively-charged substances like flunixin, like phenylbutazone, are repelled by the negative charge on melanin and do not readily bind to the hair sample even though the blood concentration may be substantially higher than the concentration of substances like clenbuterol.”

Steroids – both anabolics and corticosteroids – are neutral, so they're not attracted to hair. Anabolic steroids are excreted through skin glands and may appear on the outside, rather than the inside, of the hair shaft, but that makes it difficult to say whether a horse was exposed to the steroid externally or internally.

A hair test would probably not detect a corticosteroid like betamethasone in a horse, because it wouldn't bind well to the melanin. If hair testing had been done on Medina Spirit, it wouldn't show the drug but that would be because it couldn't, not because it had never been given.

Then there's the question of gathering that hair sample.

“There are lots of challenges with hair testing that would need to be addressed and standardized,” said Scollay. “For example, I'm terrible at pulling manes, just terrible. I have a hard time with one pull or even two pulls getting a sufficient sample. I'm pulling and pulling and pulling and I finally get what I need. There are some people who just use scissors. If you look at those samples, they're not necessarily even cuts. If you're at the laboratory, you don't know how much hair remained on the neck between the site of the cut and the hair follicle itself.”

Without the root of the hair, Scollay pointed out there's also no way to conduct DNA testing on a sample, should there ever be a question about whether the sample came from the horse in question – and of course, with the majority of Thoroughbreds being bays, the color of the hair isn't going to be much help.

Hair testing also doesn't provide particularly specific information about drug administration, and that's why it's most commonly used to find prohibited substances that are never supposed to be given to horses. Finding a little band of drug in a hair shaft tells the tester that the drug was administered, but not how much was given, how it was given, or exactly when. A three- to four-inch length of hair represents about six months of growth. Most often, laboratories could give a range of time when the drug exposure might have happened but it's usually a range of days or weeks, not hours. Some drugs, like clenbuterol, require multiple exposures of a drug before it will show up in hair. Labs can cut the hair into sections to try to narrow the timeframe a drug was given, but that method isn't always a good one.

“The problem is hair sometimes stops growing before it falls out,” said Sams. “The hair shafts grow at basically the same rate but some of them stop growing, so if you do a sample even in sections, you're going to see a distribution of the drug probably through multiple sections just due to the fact some of those hairs stopped growing. It's an imprecise science.”

A hair test is only useful if enough time has elapsed since the administration of the drug for the hair to grow long enough that it can be taken in a sample. Sams said that in research settings, hair has been sampled using a set of clippers and revealed drug administrations from one or two days before – but that in the field, there's no standardized way to take a sample, and it's unlikely a test barn will be able to successfully cut that close to the skin. Scollay said she wouldn't use a hair sample as a basis to confirm a drug administration more recently than two weeks to a month after administration.

Clenbuterol was recently banned in racing Quarter Horses, and as a result, the American Quarter Horse Association conducts hair testing on horses ahead of major stakes races. There have been cases where a hair test has been negative for clenbuterol but a post-race sample has been positive, resulting in sanctions. Ironically, some of those cases were overturned by courts on appeal because trainers successfully argued that the post-race positive must be a mistake due to the negative pre-race hair test. In reality, Scollay said, it's possible two different labs could use different methodologies on the same horse's hair and come up with different results, neither of which should invalidate a post-race test on blood or urine.

Because of these inconsistencies, both experts agree it will be some time before hair testing becomes the go-to in the United States – if it ever does.

“You have to decide what your purpose is with hair testing; it's not going to replace blood and urine testing. It's not going to do it,” she said. “It's a regulatory tool. It's part of your arsenal, but relying on it solely – unless you're dealing with a prohibited substance – you're going to have a challenging time.”

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Study: This Type Of Bone Lesion May Not Be A Reason To Turn A Sales Yearling Down

Subchondral cystic lesions (SCLs) in the distal (lower) aspect of a yearling's cannon bone occur relatively infrequently. Nonetheless, these lesions will most likely raise eyebrows if found on a yearling's pre-sale radiographs. Research shows that bone cysts occurring in this location do not necessarily need to spur a frantic phone call to the local equine surgeon.

SCLs are fluid-filled pockets found in the region of bone directly underneath the layer of articular cartilage that lines the ends of long bones inside joints. How they form remains unclear. Trauma might be involved, or they could result from the failure of the bone and cartilage to develop properly.

“Only six percent of all cystic bone lesions occur at the ends of the cannon bones,” said Dr. Mitja Miklavcic of Washington State University's College of Veterinary Medicine. “They typically are found in the femoral condyles in the knee (stifle) or in the pastern bones.”

Subchondral cystic lesions in locations such as the femoral condyle are associated with poorer racing performance compared to lesions in other locations. This explains why cystic lesions located in “prime real estate” such as the stifles are cause for pause in the sales arena.

In contrast, the presence of subchondral bone cysts in the distal cannon bone, farther from the joint, do not appear to be of particular concern in yearlings. Miklavcic relayed this message while presenting his data during the 2020 annual convention of the American Association of Equine Practitioners, which was held virtually.

In total, Miklavcic identified 42 yearlings with radiographic evidence of cystic lesions in the distal metacarpus/metatarsus. These X-rays were the requisite repository or pre-sale radiographs for yearlings up for sale at public auctions. In those 42 yearlings, 41% of the SCLs were in the left forelimb, 21% were in the right forelimb, and 12% were bilaterally in the front. The hind limbs were less commonly affected. Males were slightly overrepresented (43% of yearlings with SCLs were female).

Sixty-two percent of the lesions measured more than five millimeters along their greatest length, and most (71%) occurred in the medial condyle of the cannon bone. Most yearlings (80%) had evidence of a disrupted joint surface on the radiographs. Equibase was subsequently used to track the racing performance of those 42 yearlings with SCLs. Their racing performance was compared to the yearlings sold at the same sales that did not have SCLs in the distal cannon bones.

“No significant differences in number of starts, earnings, or earnings per start were noted between the horses sold as yearlings with and without cystic distal metacarpal/tarsal bone lesions,” said Miklavcic.

These results suggest that cystic lesions of the distal cannon bones do not affect racing performance. Miklavcic did suggest, however, that other factors could affect racing performance in this population of yearlings, not just bone cysts.

“Individual athletic capability, training techniques, and injuries or potential surgical interventions that occurred after the yearlings were sold could all have skewed the study results,” he said. “Other radiographic abnormalities were identified in 31% of the yearlings, such as osteoarthritis and sesamoiditis (inflammation of the sesamoid bones).”

In sum, simply finding a bone cyst on pre-sale radiographs in the distal cannon bone should not necessarily sound the alarm bells. To borrow a phrase from the sport horse world, you're buying the horse and not the x-rays.

Dr. Stacey Oke is a seasoned freelance writer, veterinarian, and life-long horse lover. When not researching ways for horses to live longer, healthier lives as athletes and human companions, she practices small animal medicine in New York. A busy mom of three, Stacey also finds time for running, hiking, tap dancing, and dog agility training. 

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You Can Lead A Horse To Water, But Study Shows He’ll Only Drink If It’s The Right Flavor

You can take a horse to water but you can't make him drink. A new study says adding a little flavor to the water may solve that problem.

Tessa Van Diest, a second-year veterinary student at Washington State University's Veterinary Teaching Hospital, and Dr. Jamie Kopper, associate professor at Iowa State University, were concerned that hospitalized horses that did not consume enough water could develop colic, a potentially life-threatening condition.

Traditionally, horses hospitalized at Washington State that don't voluntarily drink are offered water flavored with peppermint, sweet feed, or apple electrolytes. Until this study, no one had documented the horses' response.

“We were choosing some things that were commonly done in our hospital to try and get horses to drink water, and we wanted to see if they actually worked,” said Kopper.

The researchers chose 40 horses for the study, a mix of trail horses, pleasure horses, and show horses of different disciplines.

“Most of the horses were Quarter Horse-type horses typically presenting for a lameness and getting followed up with surgery or some sort of diagnostic imaging,” Kopper said.

The horses were divided into four groups. Each horse within a group was given a bucket of plain water and a bucket of flavored water (peppermint, sweet feed, or commercial apple electrolyte), according to its flavor grouping. Horses in the control group were offered two buckets of plain water. Assistant professor Clark Hogan helped to compile the statistics.

Kopper said the results of the 72-hour study were surprising and not at all what the researchers had expected.

“I think what surprised me the most was the horses actually did not appear to like the peppermint flavoring or the apple-electrolyte flavoring, and drank way more plain water compared to those two flavors,” she said.

Even horses that loved peppermint candy shunned the peppermint water.

“We actually had one owner who was really surprised because she said peppermints were one of her horse's favorite treats,” Kopper said. “But it was pretty uniform across the board that all the horses that were given the option of having peppermint in their water hardly drank that water at all and almost drank all their water from the plain water bucket.

“What I really took away from that was that if you're going to try flavoring a horse's water to try to get them to drink more, it's always important to give them a bucket of normal water as well, because sometimes what we think they might like, they actually wouldn't like, and it would have the opposite effect—drinking less.”

The winner of the taste test was sweet-feed flavored water, which the horses in that group significantly preferred over plain water.

Practical flavorings

For the study, Diest and Kopper chose flavorings that would be readily available to the horse owner: commercial Purina sweet feed purchased from the feed store; McCormick peppermint extract sold by the local grocery store; and apple-flavored electrolytes. To achieve the sweet-feed flavor, the researchers simply put a cup of sweet feed in the bottom of a bucket of water.

Could the researchers have used simply molasses to flavor the water, because it is the common flavor in commercial sweet feeds? Yes, but there was a matter of practicality. Not every stable has a jug of molasses sitting on the shelf, but every stable has sweet feed.

Kopper said that adding salt to a horse's diet also is a common way to encourage a horse to drink more water. However, clinicians must consider the illness for which a horse is hospitalized to assure feeding extra salt is safe. Also, horses that are being held off feed during treatment would not be able to be fed salt.

Other uses

Knowing your horse's preference would be useful in situations other than illness or hospitalization, Kopper said. Horses on the racing or show circuit, and even pleasure horses hauled to trail rides, may balk at water that tastes different from what they are accustomed to at their home barn.

“Definitely, each [study] horse was unique,” Kopper said. “So there were some horses that just loved the sweet-feed water and would drink and drink and drink it. Other horses had less of an opinion about it. So figuring out where your horse falls and if it has a flavor preference could be really helpful.”

Kopper suggested that horse owners set up their own taste test at home in advance to determine which flavor a horse prefers. Then they can carry that flavoring with them when they are away from home and add it to the water if the horse shuns the unfamiliar taste.

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IFAR: Traceability The Next Big Task For Welfare And Aftercare Advocates

Horse traceability will be key to improving Thoroughbred aftercare and welfare in the coming years, according to global experts on the subject who gathered for a recent panel of the 2021 International Forum for the Aftercare of Racehorses.

Aidan Butler, chief operating officer for 1/ST Racing and owner of four off-track Thoroughbreds (OTTBs) himself, said that inventory control will be a critical part of The Stronach Group's aftercare strategy going forward. Now that horses are microchipped, Butler said it will be easier for track ownership to verify identities when they enter and exit track premises. Previously, not only was it difficult to verify horses' identities, but whatever gate records existed were on paper, and Butler said there was often a delay in that information being transmitted to officials. The Stronach Group is working on a software program called Racehorse 360, now in beta testing, which will give the racing office direct access to data taken at the gate, as well as allow the office to see which stall a particular horse is kept in and provide alerts when a horse leaves the property.

Butler also said that funding mechanisms are critical to the success of aftercare, pointing out that Stronach Group tracks host fundraiser days, work with horsemen to match per-start contributions to aftercare funds, provide mutuel machines that give horseplayers the option of a donation to aftercare, and also keep on-track aftercare liaisons to help trainers place horses that are ready for retirement.

The Stronach Group has also struck partnerships with nearby equine hospitals to help provide surgery or other salvage medical procedures in cases where an owner or trainer can't afford it. The goal in those cases is to help a horse suffering a major injury in racing or training become sound and able to do some kind of second career, even when returning to the track isn't going to be an option.

“There is no need and no point anymore in people not taking all of the offers we have and all of the abilities for aftercare,” said Butler.

Of course, improved traceability for horses would make all of these efforts easier, and the need for better traceability is something racing officials in other countries have also struggled with. Through the years, many American equestrians have pointed to the European equine passport system as a potential solution to better identify horses and inform subsequent owners about the horse's health and history. The passport is meant to contain information about a horse's registration status, identifying markings, vaccination history, catalogue for public sale, and race history. Simon Cooper, director of the Weatherbys General Stud Book, says however that the passport system has not done much to improve Thoroughbred traceability.

“The biggest problem I have is paper,” said Cooper. “Paper disappears. Paper is not on a database. For 250 years, we've been tracing our horses using paper.”

Cooper is often asked about the whereabouts of a particular Thoroughbred; while he can sometimes pull up their information in a few minutes, there are other times when he finds a horse has fallen off the regulatory map. He pointed out one case of a horse whose papers were turned in to his office by a slaughterhouse in another country. Three different sections of the passport were clearly faked, missing embossing, holograms, watermarks, and more. Additionally, the marking information didn't match the horse who'd arrived with the passport, making Cooper question which horse had actually been sent to slaughter, and where the horse was whose identity matched the paper passport.

There is now a push to digitize paper passports to provide regulatory and sport authorities with real time data on horse movement and health information. Cooper points out however that there will still be certain types of information that isn't necessarily recorded digitally under current guidelines. A horse's private sale, transition to a new career, a spell or rest, or time with a pinhooker/breaking farm are all likely to happen without a check-in from a regulatory authority that would appear on a digital passport. Filling in those gaps is crucial to keep a horse from falling off the radar.

Cooper said that the new digital passport will also include GPS location for a smart card to be kept with a horse's identification papers, but the stud book can only require that for Thoroughbreds in active careers as breeding horses.

To harness the power of digital passports for Thoroughbred aftercare, Cooper said racing authorities will need to issue new requirements for owners, mandating notification through the digital passport smartphone app of a horse's retirement, vaccination, movement, ownership changes, and death.

Catch the full replay of the IFAR session below.

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