As post-performance drug testing methods become more sensitive, racehorse and show horse owners, veterinarians, handlers, and trainers have become more aware that positive drug tests could be the result of inadvertent contamination of the horse with chemicals present in the environment. Cynthia Kollias-Baker, DVM, PhD, director of the Racing Laboratory at the University of Florida, recently reviewed possible environmental sources of drug positives and presented her findings at the 2002 American Association of Equine Practitioners Convention.

Kollias-Baker told racehorse and show horse practitioners that this topic will be a continual problem in the future. “In racing today and in show horses, we consider the trainer to be 100% liable for that horse–they need to control everything the horse is exposed to,” she said. She and other researchers have been looking into what levels of inadvertent exposure can cause positives test, and what physiological effects those contamination levels have in the horse