A novel and innovative hair test to determine glucocorticoid levels in racing camels for use in assessment of doping, health, and disease

Association of Official Racing Chemists guidelines for drug testing in animal hair for doping control

The Association of Official Racing Chemists (AORC) guidelines for drug testing in animal hair provide animal sport doping control laboratories with a framework for the implementation of a robust and legally defensible program for the analysis, both screening and confirmatory, of animal hair samples. The guidelines were compiled by the AORC Hair Analysis Committee, which is comprised of experts from animal sport doping control laboratories around the world, before being ratified by the AORC membership. They provide guidance on all stages of animal hair analysis, from sample collection, through sample pre-treatment and extraction and onto instrumental analysis.

Innovative Detection of Testosterone Esters in Camel Hair: Unravelling the Mysteries of Dromedary Endocrinology

Introduction: Doping and steroid use represent a serious threat to animal health and can even lead to their untimely and painful death. However, doping is an acute problem in today's animal racing world, particularly in camel racing. Testosterone and its ten esters (benzoate, valerate, isocaproate, hexahydrobenzoate, decanoate, undecanoate, laurate, enanthate, cypionate, and caproate) are of utmost importance, because when they are administered to animals it is difficult to measure them efficiently. The levels of testosterone and its esters in camels and other animals are typically determined using urine and blood tests. The aim of this study was to develop and validate a liquid chromatographic-mass spectrometric (LC-MS/MS) method to determine testosterone esters in camel hair, and to apply the validated method to determine testosterone esters in collected samples. To our knowledge, this is the first report of such research. Results and Discussion: The levels of testosterone and its ten derivatives, along with the cortisol-D4 internal standard, were optimised for LC-MS/MS analysis; however, only testosterone along with its seven esters (namely benzoate, valerate, isocaproate, hexahydrobenzoate, decanoate, undecanoate and laurate) could be validated in camel hair. Only five testosterone esters could be determined in camel hair samples; the concentrations were obtained as 10.5-14.9 pg/mg for valerate (in three camels), 12.5-151.6 pg/mg for hexahydrobenzoate (in six camels), 4.8-32.1 pg/mg for laurate (in five camels), 5.1 pg/mg decanoate (in one camel), and 8.35-169 pg/mg for testosterone (in all 24 camels). Interestingly, the three racing camels displayed high concentrations of testosterone (59.2-169 pg/mg, all three camels), laurate (4.8-14.5 pg/mg, two camels), hexahydrobenzoate (116 pg/mg, one camel), decanoate (5.1 pg/mg, one camel), and valerate (11.7 pg/mg, one camel). Methods: Camel hair samples were collected from 21 non-racing dromedary camels along with three racing camels in Al Ain, UAE; these were decontaminated, pulverised, sonicated, and extracted prior to analysis. An LC-MS/MS method was employed to determine the levels of testosterone esters in the hair samples. Conclusions: This novel camel-hair test procedure is accurate, sensitive, rapid, and robust. The findings reported in this study could be significant to evaluate racing camels for suspected doping offenses. Further controlled testosterone supplementation studies are required to evaluate individual esters' effects on camel health and diseases and on performance enhancement levels. This new hair test could promote further studies in doping control, toxicology, and pharmacology, as well as having other clinical applications relating to camel health, injury, and disease.

Doping detection in animals: A review of analytical methodologies published from 1990 to 2019

Despite the impressive innate physical abilities of horses, camels, greyhounds, or pigeons, doping agents might be administered to these animals to improve their performance. To control these illegal practices, anti-doping analytical methodologies have been developed. This review compiles the analytical methods that have been published for the detection of prohibited substances administered to animals involved in sports over 30 years. Relevant papers meeting the search criteria that discussed analytical methods aiming to detect and/or quantify doping substances in animal biological matrices published from 1990 to 2019 were considered. A total of 317 studies were included, of which 298 were related to horses, demonstrating significant advances toward the development of doping detection methods for equine sports. However, analytical methods for the detection of doping agents in sports involving other species are lacking. Due to enhanced accuracy and specificity, chromatographic analysis coupled to mass spectrometry detection is preferred over immunoassays. Regarding biological matrices, blood and urine remain the first choice, although alternative biological matrices, such as hair and feces, have been considered. With the increasing number and type of drugs used as doping agents, the analytes addressed in the published papers are diverse. It is very important to continue to detect and quantify these drugs, recognizing those that are most frequently used, in order to punish the abusers, protect animals' health, and ensure a healthier and genuine competition.