Profiling for abuse of anabolic agents in meat production
- Project start date: 1 October 2005
- Project status: Completed
- Project type: Food safety
- Discipline: Food chain
- Principal researcher/s: Prof Chris Elliott, Queen’s University Belfast
- Collaborator/s: Dr Michael O'Keeffe, Teagasc Food Research Centre, Ashtown, Dublin
Research objective
The abuse of anabolic steroids in cattle production has been prevalent across Europe since the mid-1980s. These substances are used to increase the muscle mass of the animals and therefore make the carcasses more valuable at slaughter. In recent years, more sophisticated anabolic cocktails comprised of a mixture of potent hormones are being used. They are particularly difficult to detect because each individual hormone is present at a very low level.
There have been a number of high profile cases of Police Service of Northern Ireland and Garda Siochana seizures of these illegal anabolic hormone cocktails in recent times. This project profiled the abuse of anabolic agents in meat production and described the development of a high throughput and rapid detection method to allow the targeting of cattle treated with anabolic agents.
