Researchers at Penn Vet’s New Bolton Center in Kennett Square are battling equine doping to protect horses involved in sports like racing, jumping, and eventing and to ensure participants in those events remain on an even playing field, writes Katherine Unger Baillie for Penn Today.

“If horses are treated with something that is covering up an injury or building muscle or bone in an unnatural way, it can predispose them to an injury,” said Mary Robinson, director of Penn Vet’s Equine Pharmacology Research Laboratory. “There are always risks; these are high-speed sports. But we want to do everything we can to make sure there is no unneeded risk to the horse or to the jockey.”

Robinson directs the research lab, as well as the Pennsylvania Equine Toxicology and Research Laboratory, which is located in West Chester and owned by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture.

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At the New Bolton Center, researchers study the pharmacology of drugs to understand how a horse’s body processes them and how they may affect performance outcomes.

At the West Chester lab, forensics work takes place, including the annual testing of 35,000 blood and urine samples from horses competing at Pennsylvania’s six race tracks. Chemists from Penn Vet also use cutting-edge science to develop new tests to find whether a particular drug is present in a horse’s system.

Read more about the battle against equine doping at Penn Today by clicking here.

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