The California Horse Racing Board announced it has lifted its restrictions on food vendors delivering certain types of Purina feed to trainers after receiving assurance from the company that the products no longer contain zilpaterol.
Independent testing of the new Purina feed by the toxicology laboratory at University of California-Davis was negative for zilpaterol in all samples submitted, the CHRB reported in an advisory issued April 3.
The agency had targeted sweet feed produced at Purina's Turlock, Calif. plant. The contamination of the feed appeared to have occurred from mid-February through March 26. The CHRB recently dismissed 48 positive tests for small amounts of zilpaterol, with the first positive showing up on March 1.
Most of the positive tests were from horses training at the Cal Expo harness track.
Zilpaterol is a beta-2 agonist used to promote weight gain in livestock. It is prohibited in racing. ARCI classifies zilpaterol as a Class 3 drug with a Category A penalty.
With the latest test results negative, the board said it will allow CHRB licensed feed vendors to deliver any Purina products that were milled at the Turlock plant since March 27.
A report on the zilpaterol situation will be discussed at the CHRB's Medication and Track Safety Committee meeting April 10.
The feed that came under scrutiny were Purina Race Ready, Purina Strategy, Purina Omoline-200, Country Acres Horse Feed, and Country Acres Sweet-12.
