Milton McClure, DVM; and Gary Norwood, DVM, chaired an open forum on racing at the 50th annual American Association of Equine Practitioners (AAEP) Convention in Denver, Colo., Dec. 4-8, 2004. Bobby Lewis, DVM, the AAEP’s representative to the Racing Medication and Testing Consortium (RMTC), gave an update on what had transpired with that group in the past year. The biggest news was that the Association of Racing Commissioners International (RCI) approved the medication policies, eight states had adopted all or part of the recommended medication guidelines, and 10 other states were interested in adopting all or part of them. Rick Arthur, DVM, of California, said California had approved rules on medications in early December, and that those rules were put into effect.

“There’s broad acceptance and a lot of interest across the country,” said Lewis.

There was discussion about owners and veterinarians being involved in the penalty phase of positive medication violations. Arthur said 87% of positives are unintentional, meaning the positive is a result of a therapeutic medication remaining in the horse’s system or something in a feed or treatment that triggered a positive drug test.

There is approximately $650,000 in research funds available from the RMTC. Some of that funding will be spent on a research project that has been identified, but not disclosed, on alternative therapies for treating exercise-induced pulmonary hemorrhage (EIPH or bleeding)