This study, funded by the Victorian government, used 14 greyhound dogs in an attempt to investigate screening methods relating to the administration of three drugs used for doping purposes (all erythropoietins, a hormone secreted by the kidneys that increases the rate of production of red blood cells in response to falling levels of oxygen in the tissues).
The greyhounds were split into three groups with each receiving a different drug. 6 dogs were administered with Eprex, 4 dogs with Aranesp, and 4 dogs with Mircera.
Urine and blood samples were collected over 7 days for the Eprex cohort, 10 days for the Aranesp cohort, and 14 days for the Mircera cohort. All drugs were administered intravenously on day 3.
Following collection, the urine and blood samples were screened for erythropoietin.
The fate of greyhounds at the conclusion of the experiment is not stated.
(Timms, M, Steel, R & Vine J 2016. ‘Identification of recombinant human EPO variants in greyhound plasma and urine by ELISA, LC-MS/MS and western blotting: a comparative study’, Drug Test. Analysis, 8: 164-176)