EPO in equines - aka Blood Doping

[Where_sMyWhite]

A la Lance Armstrong.

Interesting article in today’s Paulick Report on the use of EPO in racehorses.

Article seems to be split if the problem is endemic in racing or not a big problem.

Thought it was an interesting read. Cycling has tried to curb its use and relies on OOCT in part to help curb the use. Lance not only did EPO but would harvest his own red blood cells at key intervals before the race and re-transfuse them at appropriate times over the course of the 3 week TdF. Cycling tries to catch this by looking at how old blood cells are in the body; too high a percentage of older RBC and harvesting/re-transfusing may be in play.

[Palm_Beach]

Cycling and horse racing are worlds apart. You can’t compare a human being cycling 20+ miles (correct me if I’m wrong -I don’t cycle) and a horse running 3/4 to 1 mile. EPO is an endurance drug. Horses sprint.

My track vet (who is old and grouchy but has a very large practice) has never seen a bottle of EPO on the track in his life. But he’s never practiced in KY.

Here is the other article from 2015 - https://www.paulickreport.com/news/r…oping-a-horse/

You’d think with having to administer multiple vials of the drug on multiple days someone would have been caught with the drug or needles or empty vials or something, if it’s “rampant.” Easy enough to search barns, vehicles, dumpsters, vet vehicles, etc. Heck, they’d have to have cases of the stuff around if it’s being used per the protocol. Plus blood test results. If Dr. Cheney thinks it’s that rampant, why hasn’t anyone looked for evidence?

And now there is supposedly all this transparency with the vet records, how they going to bill for all this EPO and blood test monitoring etc without getting busted?

@Where’sMyWhite not a criticism of you, just adding to the discussion.

[vineyridge]

Article on trying to develop a blood test for blood doping by Kentucky. The new strategy involves micro dosing.

Anecdotal reports suggest that some racehorses are being given micro-doses of recombinant human erythropoietin to improve performance, according to the equine medical director for the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission.

The micro-dosing regime is designed to avoid detection of the drug, which stimulates the production of oxygen-carrying red blood cells. Abuse of the substance, known as blood doping, allows more oxygen to be carried to the muscles.

https://www.horsetalk.co.nz/2019/03/11/test-sought-to-identify-new-horse-blood-doping-strategy/

[Where_sMyWhite]

@Palm Beach

Cycling and horse racing are worlds apart. You can’t compare a human being cycling 20+ miles (correct me if I’m wrong -I don’t cycle) and a horse running 3/4 to 1 mile. EPO is an endurance drug. Horses sprint.

I’m well aware that cycling the TdF (pretty much one of the few road races Lance ever did in his career) and horse racing are worlds apart.

The physiology of a horse and their spleen and how it factors into a race compared to human physiology and our spleen and bicycle road racing have nothing, really, to do with each other.

The PR article even points out that some think EPO is more common than thought while others feel it is a non-issue.

It might be of value to build a higher RBC for “storage” in the spleen even for a horse.

Thought it was an interesting article. Yeah, you mention Lance Armstrong and EPO and blood doping and people kinda get it. Unless they follow cycling, they wouldn’t know the scope of the things that Lance and other competitors tried. Some still try it and get caught. OOCT has helped at least slow down some of the doping issues.

BTW, TdF (Tour de France) is 21 days, usually at least 100 miles a day (average) (3 weeks + 2 days and those 2 days are rest days, usually the 2nd and 3rd Mondays of the race). Some stages are shorter but 100 miles seemed like a good place. There are actually 3 Grand Tours (Italy, France, Spain) but IIRC Lance really only raced France). Modern day bike road racers ride by watts produced.

[Laurierace]

Without out of competition testing I don’t know if we will ever know exactly how rampant the use of EPO really is. My personal opinion is most of the “needle trainers” have moved on from EPO. Just like milk shaking, EPO eventually decreases performance. When it comes to red blood cells more isn’t always more.

[Where_sMyWhite]

Maybe for horses that’s why trainers moved on from EPO… didn’t have the desired/hoped for results.

I could get why bicycle road racers would be attracted to it but race horses, even the longer distance racers, have such a different energy output than road racers.

Sounds like it may have been a “thing” for a period of time and then moved on.

[vineyridge]

If it’s a thing of the past, why would Kentucky be concerned now? The article I linked was posted within the last couple of weeks.

[Laurierace]

I gave my opinion, I did not state any facts. It is an educated guess just like anyone else’s guess since we really have no idea and won’t have any idea without out of competition testing.

[merrygoround]

Be aware that the equine has the ability to "dump’ the contents of his spleen. Humans cannot do the same thing.