Her Majesty’s horse, Estimate, has tested positive for morphine. They say it was from contaminated feed.
Can anyone tell me how morphine could get into feed?
[QUOTE=Sparrowette;7679124]
Her Majesty’s horse, Estimate, has tested positive for morphine. They say it was from contaminated feed.
Can anyone tell me how morphine could get into feed?
From poppies.
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/poppy-seeds-uk-bakery-products-may-contain-dangerous-morphine-levels-1457451
https://focusonfoodsafety.wordpress.com/tag/poppy-seeds/
http://www.bfr.bund.de/en/press_information/2006/05/elevated_morphine_levels_in_poppy_seeds__risk_to_health_not_ruled_out-7410.html
Wow… that never occurred to me. Thanks.
I would think it would take a heck of a lot of poppies to produce a big enough signal to be picked up in the horse.
BETA update on the contamination; http://www.beta-uk.org/pages/riders/news/horse-feed-contamination-update.php
The UFAS Beta NOPS Code
http://www.beta-uk.org/pages/riders/feed-nops.php#what
“Historically the principal risk has come from caffeine and theobromine, but more recently several incidences of morphine contamination of feed have occurred, coinciding with the cultivation of morphine poppies in UK.”
PS: Estimate finished 2nd in he gold Cup this year.
There are 4 horses that tested. It is under investigation. But considering that the 4 horses that I believe are from 4 different yards most likely feed contamination. Its happened before.
I suppose if someone wanted to embarrass the Queen they may have been able to slip some in the horse’s mouth. But the other 3 were not owned by high profile owners.
[QUOTE=SportArab;7680251]
I would think it would take a heck of a lot of poppies to produce a big enough signal to be picked up in the horse.[/QUOTE]
Actually from what I have read in the past it doesn’t. Even more so with the sophisticated testing equipment that is used now a days. This has happened to a few winners in this country also and the horses were cleared.
One poppy seed bagel will trigger a loud alarm in a human.
You can indeed fail the pee test from eating poppyseed bakery items, and the seeds can be boiled down to essentially make herbal-med morphine. Contaminate the feed with a grocery-store sized bottle of the stuff and you could probably screw up a drug test…
[QUOTE=RiddleMeThis;7680977]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fxr6bQikRk0[/QUOTE]
It’s unlikely the seed is the culprit, as the seed of the poppy has the least amount of Alkaloids. It’s the fleshy part of the pod, and even the stem and stalk from which the opium sap is produced.
Poppies are grown commercially for poppy seed production for food and also grown in people’s gardens as ornamental plants, and Poppy plants can and do naturlize and spread. It’s likely a plant was growing in a field of some other type of grain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cWVZu7F7VSE
there are three more from Mythbusters as well as this one.
Somebody ought to bust Mythbusters. I can’t tell you how many times I watched that show frustrated at their unscientific methodologies. I can bust holes in their pseudo experiments left and right, so they aren’t the end all and be all of the last word on anything for sure.
Poppy seeds from bagels show up in drug tests in humans. There’s no reason to doubt that parts of the plant have contaminated feed in England.
up to 6 horses now
The BETA warning has appeared on all the national horse sport assocs’ websites. It is a widespread problem, caused by careless grain processors/merchants. The fact that there are so few horses involved is probably because the rest have not been tested.
MORPHINE INVESTIGATION NEARING END
The British Horse racing Authority=s investigation into a handful of positive morphine tests in recent weeks is drawing to a close, BHA Chief Executive Paul Bittar revealed. Seven horses across Britain, and with various trainers, returned positive tests for morphine in what is believed to be a case of contaminated feed, although the source has yet to be officially confirmed. The most high-profile horse involved in the case is The Queen=s 5-year-old mare Estimate (Ire) (Monsun {Ger}), who tested positive following her second-place finish in theG1 Gold Cup at Royal Ascot June 19.
At this stage all our information points towards a feed contamination, as has been reported, "Bittar told Channel 4. “I’m not sure that we have been quiet through this because we broke with our normal protocol to advise about this before the horses were named, which is slightly unusual for us. We were conscious of the high-profile nature, particularly Estimate, and the fact there were multiple horses involved.” Bittar continued, “It is fair to ask could we have done more to explain the difference between doping and medication issues, but we get caught between being the regulator and making sure that we play out the whole investigation and not ruling out any potential reason for the positive. While everything is pointing towards feed contamination, as the regulator we are forced to play that out right through the investigation”
