The British Horseracing Authority, also known simply as the BHA, is the regulatory authority for horse racing in Great Britain.It was formed on 31 July 2007, after the merger of the British Horseracing Board (BHB) and the Horseracing Regulatory Authority (HRA).Its stated objectives are to: "provide the most compelling and attractive racing in the world; be seen as the world leader in raceday regulation; ensure the highest standards for the sport and participants, on and away from the racecourse; promote the best for the racehorse; and represent and promote the sport and the industry."It is a member of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities. The BHA's current chair is Annamarie Phelps, who succeeded interim chairman Atholl Duncan in the role in 2019.
Prohibited gene editing in horses (either in embryos or via cell culture and cloning) can result in both desired and undesired outcomes. If left undetected, changes can proliferate within the population in subsequent generations, posing a major threat to welfare and breed integrity.
BACKGROUND:Horse falls are an important safety and welfare concern in jump racing, as they are associated with an increased risk of equine fatality and injury, as well as jockey injury. OBJECTIVES:To identify risk factors for horse falls in British jump racing. STUDY DESIGN:Retrospective cohort. METHODS:All jump race starts made on British racecourses between January 2010 and April 2023 were considered. Available horse, race, racecourse, trainer and jockey data were collated and combined with faller data recorded in official databases. Horses that were 'brought down' by another horse were not considered a faller. Risk factors (n = 101) were evaluated using mixed-effects logistic regression. Separate analyses were performed for steeplechase and hurdle starts. RESULTS:The overall faller rate was 40.6 per 1000 steeplechase starts (n = 5771/141,922; 95% CI 39.6-41.7) and 19.2 per 1000 hurdle starts (n = 4661/242,486; 95% CI 18.7-19.8). In both race codes, increasing horse age (steeplechase: OR 0.92 per year, 95% CI 0.90-0.94, p < 0.001; hurdle: OR 0.98 per year, 95% CI 0.96-1.00, p = 0.035), greater racehorse and jockey race experience, and wearing of an eye covering (steeplechase: OR 0.82, 95% CI 0.77-0.88, p < 0.001; hurdle: OR 0.78, 95% CI 0.71-0.86, p < 0.001) reduced the odds of falling. For steeplechase starts, odds of falling increased with increasing field size and were higher in non-GB trained horses (OR 1.32, 95% CI 1.13-1.54, p < 0.001). Racing over padded hurdles lowered the odds of falling compared to racing over birch hurdles (OR 0.89, 95% CI 0.82-0.96, p = 0.014). MAIN LIMITATIONS:Analysis was restricted to available race-day data. CONCLUSIONS:Replacing birch hurdles with padded hurdles could decrease the overall faller rate in hurdle racing. Restricting the field size in steeplechase races may be warranted, although the number of races with large field sizes (>30 runners) is small and so the overall impact on reducing faller rates may be minimal.
Gene editing and genome manipulation offer great promise for treating diseases in both humans and animals. There is a danger, however, that this technology could be used for other purposes such as performance enhancement. To detect such 'gene doping' events, we evaluated a targeted enrichment panel and next-generation sequencing to assess its reproducibility, sensitivity, and capability of variant detection on a wide variety of samples and biological matrices. The panel was verified against existing data for the myostatin gene, a PCR-based SNP panel, and whole genome sequencing in a subset of samples. As successful detection of seamless edits will rely on a detailed understanding of the natural population, we also screened over 170 Thoroughbreds and catalogued numerous novel variants. These included several resulting in coding alterations, and a structural variant. Samples spiked with transgenic cDNA-based material to simulate gene doping events were detected down to 3.2% mosaicism, giving confidence that mosaic mutations resulting from embryonic introduction of gene editing reagents can be detected using these methods. The ability of software packages to detect gene doping events was also assessed, including multiple genome alignment tools, variant callers, and structural variant callers. Freebayes performed strongest at SNP-based editing detection, and Delly and Manta had complementary advantages depending on the mutation type. For routine testing, a multi-faceted approach to calling should be taken to maximise the detection capabilities.
The use of testosterone in racehorses is predominantly monitored using international urine and plasma concentration-based thresholds and complementary steroid ratios. To date, there has been no published pharmacokinetic study on transdermally applied testosterone products in horses and whether their use could result in adverse analytical findings. Therefore, quantitative analysis of testosterone and epitestosterone in urine and testosterone in plasma samples was performed following a pilot multi-dose transdermal Testogel administration (1 mg/kg once a day for 7 days on clipped skin) to one gelding and one mare. The peak concentrations (Cmax) of free testosterone were 1060 and 1800 pg/mL in gelding and mare plasma, respectively. Testosterone concentrations exceeded the international plasma threshold of 100 pg/mL consistently for up to 4 h post-administration, after which detection above the threshold was sporadic up to 127 h. In urine, Cmax of free and conjugated (sulfate and glucuronide) testosterone were 700 and 323 ng/mL in gelding and mare urine, respectively. In the gelding, testosterone concentrations exceeded the international urine threshold of 20 ng/mL consistently for up to 47 h post-administration, but sporadically up to 143 h. In all samples, testosterone: epitestosterone ratios were greater than 5, another requirement for adverse analytical findings in geldings. In the mare, testosterone concentrations exceeded the urine threshold of 55 ng/mL consistently for up to 71 h post-administration, but sporadically up to 167 h. Therefore, these limited results for one gelding and one mare demonstrate that doping control following transdermal applications of testosterone to racehorses is possible using existing approaches.
Due to the ease of collection, transport and storage, the use of dried blood spots (DBS) offers an attractive alternative matrix for detection of the abuse of gene therapy, otherwise known as gene doping. This study evaluated the recovery, extraction efficiency and resulting detection capability of DNA from DBS by evaluating different target types, DNA extraction kits, the number of punches and blood tube preservatives. The long-term storage stability of low-copy-number transgene targets in DBS was not assessed in this study but would be noteworthy to investigate further. DNA was quantified using two detection methods: qPCR and digital PCR (dPCR). Using six punches with the Qiagen Investigator kit gave the best overall DNA yield compared with other extraction methods. Including three punches, however, gave better DNA extraction efficiency. Reference material could be detected using qPCR and dPCR in DBS spiked with 5000 copies/mL of blood (approximately 15 copies per 3 mm of punch). The optimal DNA extraction protocol was used on DBS samples from a custom recombinant adeno-associated virus administration study and showed successful detection of vector targets in DBS samples.
