Prohibited Substance Definition Rule Change
The change to the GRNZ Rules of Racing was approved by the GRNZ Rules of Racing committee on March 9 2019 and by the GRNZ Board on Wednesday 11 August 2021 and will come into force on Friday 1 October 2021.
The Rule change is an extension to the Definition of "Prohibited Substance". Definition parts (iii), (iv), (v), (vi) and (vii) below are added to create thresholds for Cobalt, Arsenic, Testosterone in male greyhounds, Hydrocortisone, and Methoxytyramine.
Impact of the Change
In order to measure the potential impact of this change, a trial was conducted on seven different nutritional supplements freely available over the counter , and fed to seven individual greyhounds. The trial was purely to see whether feeding any of these products was likely to raise urinary cobalt levels above the 100ug/litre threshold currently in force.
The products tested were “Go Fast”, “Blud”, Feramo-D, “My Beau-Dental & Breath”, “My Beau- Skin & Hair” , “My Beau-Vision & Optics”, “My Beau-Bone & Joint”.
Urine samples were collected from all dogs prior to feeding the products , the products were fed for three consecutive days then urine samples collected at the end of days three, four and five.
The pre-feeding urinary cobalt levels ranged between 3ug/L & 11ug/L
During the trial the highest levels attained were 21.8ug/L for Feramo-D and 22.4ug/L for Blud. All the other products failed to raise urinary cobalt levels above 20ug/L.
On this necessarily limited basis it seems reasonable to assume that feeding these products even for prolonged periods is unlikely to raise urinary cobalt levels above the 100ug/L threshold.
Even so, it would be prudent for LPs not to feed these products on race day as there can be significant individual variation in excretion times and we do not know for certain whether there is a cumulative effect with prolonged feeding.
Further, it must be emphasised that this study does not apply to injectable products containing cobalt or vitamin-B12. Trials in Australia established that injection of Hemo-15 can elevate cobalt levels above the 100ug/L threshold for up to 24 hours with a recommended withholding period of at least 48 hours. This recommendation also applies to a number of other injectable products containing Vitamin-B12, eg Coforta, Catosal, Richtafort, Duoject-B, Multiject-B, etc. All these products have a minimum withholding recommendation of 48 hours.
LPs are advised to seek veterinary advice before using any injectable Vitamin B12 products.
The Definition Change...Prohibited Substance means:
(a) Any substance capable of affecting a Greyhound by its action on the central or peripheral nervous system or any part of that system such as the autonomic nervous system, cardio-vascular system, respiratory system, alimentary-digestive system, musculoskeletal system or genitourinary system and includes without limitation analgesics, antihistamines, anti-inflammatory agents, blood coagulants, diuretics, hormones and their synthetic counterparts, stimulants, corticosteroids, anabolic steroids, local anaesthetics, muscle relaxants and tranquillisers.
(b) Substances administered to disguise or make undetectable, or attempt to disguise or make undetectable, the administration of any of the substances in paragraph (a) above.
(c) A metabolite, isomer or artefact of any of the substances referred to in paragraphs (a) or (b) above irrespective of whether such metabolite, isomer or artefact has any pharmacological effect or not.
(d) Unusual or abnormal amounts of endogenous substances including but not limited to cortisol and testosterone.
provided that the following are excluded from the definition of Prohibited Substances:
(i) Testosterone as evidenced by the presence of 5-androstane-3, 17-diol at or below a concentration of 10 nanograms per millilitre in a Sample of urine taken from a bitch will not breach the provisions of sub rule (d) of this definition.
(ii) Ethanol as evidenced by the presence of ethyl glucuronide and ethyl sulphate at or below a concentration of 20 micrograms per millilitre in a Sample of urine taken from a Greyhound will not breach the provisions of sub rule (d) of this definition.
(iii) Cobalt at or below a mass concentration of 100 nanograms per millilitre in a Sample of urine taken from a greyhound will not breach the provisions of sub-rule (d) of this definition.
(iv) Arsenic at or below a mass concentration of 800 nanograms per millilitre in a Sample of urine taken from a greyhound will not breach the provisions of sub rule (d) of this definition.
(v) Testosterone as evidenced by the presence of 5β-androstane-3α, 17β-diol at or below a concentration of 100 nanograms per millilitre in a Sample of urine taken from a male greyhound will not breach the provisions of sub rule (d) of this definition.
(vi) Hydrocortisone (cortisol) as evidenced by the presence of hydrocortisone at or below a mass concentration of 1000 nanograms per millilitre in a Sample of urine taken from a greyhound will not breach the provisions of sub rule (d) of this definition.
(vii) 3-methoxytyramine at or below a mass concentration of 1600 nanograms per millilitre in a Sample of urine taken from a greyhound will not breach the provisions of sub rule (d) of this definition.
