3. Forens. Sci. Soc. (1977), 17, 21

The Illegal Administration of Phenobarbitone to the Racing Greyhound

H. SMITH Department of Forensic Medicine,

The University, Glasgow, Scotland, G I 2 8QQ.

Phenobarbitone is involved in 45% qf all doping incidents at greyhound rare tracks. The theory and practice of its use are outlined and the possibility of detection summarised. The application of anaGytica1 toxicology to the control o j phenobarbitone doping is described in some detail and the possible interpretation of the results suggested. The proper use of presently available facilities such as general security, efective veterinary supervision and drug analyses means that doping racing greyhounds with phenobarbitone should not be possible without detection.

Introduction The effect of "dope" on racing greyhounds plays a significant part in the

schemes of those working illegally for financial gain from bets on the results of races. The word dope is used to cover any material which will influence the animal's performance, whether the effect is stimulation or depression. The main requirement of the dope is to enable the investor to attain certainty of returns from bets. A dope is, therefore, useless if this is not achieved or nearly achieved. This leads to a consideration of the available drugs as classified for doping. The classes are basically divided into stimulants and depressants from the action on the greyhound's metabolism and, from the practising doper's point of view, into old favourites and new offerings. If these four groups are considered, then a number of observations can be made as follows.

I t may not be possible to stimulate a greyhound so that it will perform better than the best animal in the race. Any attempt to secure extra stimulation by overdose can and does result in slowing the animal-hence the use of one particular stimulant alkaloid as a "stopper". Bearing these points in mind, it is unlikely that a would-be doper will be attracted to this technique with the built-in possibility of increasing the uncertainty of the race. The alternative of using a depressant drug is, therefore, more likely, and as this type of drug can reduce the greyhound's performance with some certainty, much more reasonable.

The choice between old and new drugs is really between experience and repute. With the old favourites the dose required for the acceptable reduction in performance is known at least to a reasonable extent, while with the newer products a system of dose and effect has to be found. As a result the well-known drugs are those used by the serious doper.

Phenobarbitone is a drug which has the necessary qualifications for use by the doper. I t slows the greyhounds and through long use the dose and effect relationship has been established to some extent. As a result phenobarbitone is one of the drugs of choice for doping, and experience has shown that 45% of all greyhound doping incidents involve this drug.

Administration Two related problems face the people who wish to give phenobarbitone (or

other drugs) to greyhounds. These are administration and timing. The doper has two popular methods of administration to choose from. These are the use of

either the syringe, or meat balls with added phenobarbitone. Both methods must be applied in a security-cor~scious environment which can modify the final choice greatly.

The syringe has the advantage of quick and certain administration but requires reasonable care and some experience to give the required results and, most important, it is instantly recognisable evidence of criminal intent. This last point is probably the reason that the syringe is not the method of choice.

Treated meat balls have the advantage of appearing relatively innocent and of course, they do not usually survive the doping act. Administration is carried out simply by giving the treated meat to the selected animals. The meat is treated either by incorporating phenobarbitone itself or one of the tablet forms crushed to a powder. As an alternative the phenobarbitone, again as either powder or small tablets, may be placed in gelatin capsules which can be pushed into a ball of meat as required. The use of the meat ball is the method chosen for most doping attempts at the present time especially when many greyhounds are being treated.

The timing of the doping is of secondary consideration but is still of major importance. The greyhound must be under the influence of the drug at the time of the race but there should be no symptoms to be found at the pre-race examination. Phenobarbitone is useful because it is slow acting and admini- stration before kenneling may well be missed at the veterinary examination. More sophisticated timing of the drug action by the use of coated tablets has been tried. Tests of such tablets or capsules under laboratory and racing conditions show that the uncertainty caused by capsule variation and the individual dog's metabolism is large and as a result not reliable enough for certain drugging at the required time. In a typical experiment, hardened gelatin capsules timed for release at three hours were administered. The capsules were filled with a rapidly excreted indicator drug. Of the three dogs used, one showed the drug in urine after about one hour and the other two, after about 4 hours. With untreated capsules the drug appears during the first hour.

Once the drug, the method of administration and the access to the greyhound have been planned, the dose is the next point for consideration and the one on which the whole venture rests.

Dosage The intelligent criminal does not look in veterinary text books to find the

phenobarbitone dose. If he did, then his success would be small as the doses described are meant to provide therapy and not "six lengths off" in a race. The resulting dog would probably be picked out by the veterinary surgeon in pre- race or post-race examination. Equally, there is little point in looking in the medical literature as the human subject is much more sensitive to pheno- barbitone and dose rates cannot be transferred between species reliably.

His knowledge comes from actual trial runs conducted by himself or others. This is the only way to get useful results but it is rather difficult to achieve if the greyhounds are owned, kenneled and run outwith his control. However, this does not stop attempts being made and occasionally obvious trial runs where incorrect doses of drug were administered have been discovered by the racing authorities. The average human dose is lmg/kg. If this is used for slowing greyhounds it is too little and the result is either no effect or the greyhound may be speeded up. This last action is the result of partial sedation in excitable dogs with the accompanying improvement in overall performance.

The dose for removing a few lengths from the greyhound's performance is considerably larger, and even if used, then due to individual variation the required effect may be produced, or the dog may not be affected or it may be visibly drugged. In a typical experiment when correctly doped greyhounds were trialled the following observations were made.

When clinical symptoms of phenobarbitone dosage were looked for they were found over the period 2-8 hours after administration. Some of these symptoms were marked (e.g., unsteadiness and stumbling) and some were achieved as the result of continued assessment (e.g. , increasing quietness). The greyhounds were given trials 7 hours after administration. At that time one dog ran badly and was obviously affected; three appeared to have slightly reduced perform- ances and two appeared to have slightly improved performances.

Overdosage with phenobarbitone ( >20 mg/kg) results in the rapid develop- ment of dramatic clinical symptoms including marked unsteadiness, inco- ordination and occasionally unconsciousness.

Application - -

The dose, the method and time of administration having been selected the criminal is left with the inter-related problems of penetrating the security of the racetrack (or kennels) and betting tactics.

The degree of security penetration required is controlled by the proposed administration of the phenobarbitone. For example if only one dog is involved, then the object may be achieved with small-scale bribery, if large-scale doping is the object then a skilled break into the kennels is the usual procedure.

A look at betting odds would indicate that the removal of a single dog from those that may win would not be much of an advantage. However, the people involved are experts in the field and their assessment may need only one animal removed or they may wish to give a poor impression of a particular animal for some future advantage.

The logical extension of this is the drugging of all but one of the greyhounds in a race. This, hopefully, produces a certain winner and in practice many betting coups are based on this technique. However, it requires relatively free access to the animals so that the selected dogs may be doped.

A further popular method in large doping incidents is the administration of phenobarbitone to all the dogs in one kennel with the resulting lessening of odds throughout the race meeting. This requires access to one kennel only and is a much more rapid business than hunting for selected greyhounds in the dark while avoiding the security system.

This section has covered the techniques used to influence greyhound racing performance with phenobarbitone. On the whole, the method improves the odds in favour of the criminal if the correct choice of conditions is made. There is no doubt that some people can prosper as a result of doping and it is only because of good security, vigilant veterinary surgeons and in recent years the application of sensitive drug analysis, that this problem is not more widely found.

Detection Doping may be detected as a result of evidence found by the security forces,

failure to pass a veterinary examination, unusual racing or betting or finding a drug in greyhound samples by analytical techniques. The last method is that dealt with in the remainder of this paper.

Samples Urine is the material usually used in the analysis for drugs in greyhounds.

This material is chosen because sampling causes no distress to the greyhound and is produced almost on demand and in reasonable amounts. The urine is obtained by walking the animal for a short distance, after a period of confine- ment, and collecting the inevitable sample by the dextrous use of a plastic bowl. The period of sample collection is one of high risk due to the ease with which a substitution of samples can be made. Relatively close supervision should prevent these problems arising at this time. Apart from this, samples should be well guarded at later stages as substitution by various fluids including drug-free

urine (various species) and soft drinks has resulted in a loss of evidence. In emergency conditions other materials such as blood or stomach contents can be analysed but the taking of these may cause the greyhound some distress.

Analysis The detection and determination of phenobarbitone in biological material

can be carried out using many of the techniques of modern analytical toxicology. Those used commonly in testing samples from greyhounds are thin layer chromatography, ultraviolet spectrometry and gas chromatography, all preceded by a solvent extraction step which removes most of the normal bio- logical materials. The different methods are referred to below.

Methods The greyhound urine samples all require solvent extraction before the analysis

is carried out. A useful ethyl acetate extraction is that described by Bogan and Smith (1968, a). Thin layer chromatography is the method of choice for the routine analysis of the samples for phenobarbitone. The method used is described by Bogan et al., (1964) and a modification may be used as a pre-race screening technique. The sensitivity (lpg on the TLC plate) is suitable for the detection of the drug and its metabolites well below the level of drug required to affect the greyhound's performance. Quantitative measurements may be made on samples in the concentration range where the drug is effective using Broughton's (1956) ultraviolet spectrometry method as modified by Bogan and Smith (1967). If it becomes necessary to work at lower concentration levels than mentioned above or a second method is required the gas chromatography method of Bogan and Smith (1967) is useful for qualitative analysis. The method of Bruce and Smith (1976) is designed for the measurement of low concentrations of phenobarbitone in small volumes (lml) of biological fluids.

Interpretation The finding of phenobarbitone or its metabolites in greyhound urine means

that this drug has been administered for veterinary or other reasons. This drug is not formed naturally and the only other drug likely to cause interference is primidone which has the same action as, and metabolises to, phenobarbitone (Bogan and Smith, 1968, b). Having established that administration has taken place, the question of whether it is possible to fix the time of dosage arises. An investigation shows that after dosage there is a rapid rise to a maximum con- centration in the urine at 6 to 9 hours. Thereafter, the drug level falls to trace levels in about a week. The phenobarbitone is detectable intermittently for 3-4 weeks and the metabolites which appear almost at the same time as the drug may still be visible intermittently up to 8 weeks. Unfortunately the levels found and the times of appearance and disappearance of the drug and the two metabolites are very variable for individual animals given the same weight related dose. Table 1 gives typical results found for six greyhounds given phenobarbitone (10mgIkg). This shows the variation in phenobarbitone excretion between animals and from one sample to the next, for the same animal. The variation from sample to sample results (at longer times after dosage than those given in Table 1) in the occasional negative result in a series of positive findings both for the drug and its metabolites. Presumably this is due to the day to day variation in the individual greyhound's metabolism.

The result of these findings is that only two correct statements, based solely on analytical results, about the timing of phenobarbitone doping can be made. These are that phenobarbitone has been administered and that the drug was given in the immediate past or the distant past, i .e., the animal was doped for the race being tested or for some earlier race or trial.

Pre and Post Race Testing The actual use of analytical toxicology in greyhound racing is divided into

Time (hours)

0 3 6 9

TABLE 1

PHENOBARBITONE EXCRETED BY GREYHOUNDS (Dose-IOmglkg)

Phenobarbitone (mg/ 100ml urine) Dog 1 Dog 2 Dog 3 Dog 4 Dog 5 Dog 6 - - - - - - 0.55 0.54 0.16 - - A

1.09 - 0.91 0.13 1.36 0.08 2.50 1.10 1.08 2.10 2.70 1.30 0.39 0.41 0.17 0.46 0.55 0.74 0.68 0.27 0.22 0.27 0.34 0.45 0.12 0.38 0.50 0.40 - 0.32 0.37 0.06 0.70 0.20 0.44 0.49 0.66 0.37 0.64 0.15 0.41 0.36 0.50 0.22 0.39 0.35 0.41 0.35 0.47 0.26 0.06 0.23 0.15 0.28 0.26 0.23 0.44 0.16 0.22 - 0.24 A 0.24 0.15 0.14 0.32 0.2 1 0.09 0.44 0.22 0.09 0.23 0.23 0.13 0.41 0.23 - 0.16 - 0.06 0.09 0.05 0.12 0.06 - 0.12 0.06 - 0.11

trace trace trace trace trace not found

two parts. The first and most immediately beneficial is pre-race testing (Smith, 1970). Phenobarbitone can be discovered pre-race by urine analysis using a streamlined version of the thin layer chromatography technique for barbiturates described above. The operator follo~vs a strictly laid down method which results in obtaining a "positive" or "negative" result. The positive finding indicates the presence of a foreign substance which has been separated by the method used and reacts with the developing spray. Phenobarbitone is in the group of drugs called "barbiturates" in pre-race testing as sponsored by the National Grey- hound Racing Club. The group comprises true barbiturates and other drugs not related to barbiturates. The function of the pre-race test is to alert the authorities to the presence of a drug in the particular animal or animals so that action can be taken to adjust the racing and to obtain samples for post-race testing. The foreign material is not identified at the pre-race testing laboratory.

Over one million urine samples have been analysed pre-race during the last 10 years. On average one sample in every 2000 gives a positive reaction as a result of the presence of phenobarbitone or its metabolites. The actual number of doping incidents is much less than this figure because many positive results may be found during one investigation. The only analytical difficulties ex- perienced with the pre-race detection of the barbiturates are from the use of contaminated reagents or dye based markers (crayon or felt tipped). The reagent which is usually contaminated is ethyl acetate and though this is normally accidental or the result of using low purity material, deliberate contamination has been discovered. These problems are guarded against by checking the reagents before the analysis begins.

Post-race testing is used where pre-race testing facilities are not available and as a back up for pre-race testing. The object of this analysis is to cstablish the identity of the drug and measure the concentration if necessary. The analysts used are skilled and able to present and interpret their findings both for the racing authorities and in a court of law. I t should be emphasised that only post-race findings by skilled personnel working with identified samples can be usefully brought forward as evidence.

The effectiveness of the analytical system for the detection of phenobarbitone doping has been checked many times by the examination of urine samples from greyhounds, given various doses and dose forms, which undergo the whole procedure from home kennels to actual trial racing. The pre-race analysis methods are tested by examining phenobarbitone containing urine samples

from treated greyhounds. Occasionally the efficiency of the technique is further tested by including a test sample of urine among the samples being analysed at an actual race meeting.

All these tests show that the analysis is completely reliable not only in the post-race laboratory but also when applied under pressure in the pre-race laboratory where time is very limited and results are required as quickly as possible.

Conclusion Phenobarbitone doping can be claimed to be potentially one of the most

successful methods of greyhound doping because of the large amount of infor- mation available to those concerned and the ease with which the drug is obtainable. Security in the form of guards, investigators, veterinary examina- tions and drug analyses make the successful carrying out of a doping coup very difficult. General security limits access to the greyhounds while veterinary examinations and pre-race testing should alert the authorities to the possibility that a greyhound is under the influence of a barbiturate. Post-race testing gives firm evidence for any enquiry or trial which may result from detection of an incident at a track.

Proper use of the presently available facilities results in a situation where doping with phenobarbitone can no longer be achieved without detection.

Acknowledgements The author wishes to thank the National Greyhound Racing Club and the

Instaprint Camera Co. for the provision of grants during the tenure of which this work was carried out. He also thanks the many stadia and workers who took part in the various research projects.

References BOGAN, J., RENTOUL, E. and SMITH, H., 1964,J. Foren. Sci. Soc., 4, 147. BOGAN, J. and SMITH, H., 1967, J. For. Sci. Soc., 7, 37. BOGAN, J. and SMITH, H., 1968, a, Vet. Rec., 83, 658. BOGAN, J. and SMITH, H., 1968, b, 3. Pharm. Pharmac., 20, 64. BROUGHTON, P. M. G., 1956, Biochem. J., 63, 207. BRUCE, A. M. and SMITH, H., 1976, Analyst, 102, 35. SMITH, H., 1970, Vet. Rec., 86, 216.