Federation to host
International FEI Medication Control Forum
on February 14 2007

The UAE Equestrian and Racing Federation, in conjunction with the Federation Equestre Internationale, FEI, is organizing an International Forum on Medication Control. The Forum is scheduled to take place in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday February 14, 2007 at the Police Officers Club. FullStory

THE FEI COMPETITOR GUIDE TO DOPING AND MEDICATION CONTROL - [Click Here]

FEI Rule Change in FEI requirements for Equine
Influenza Vaccination

Equine Influenza is a viral respiratory disease which is highly contagious to susceptible horses. Outbreaks of the disease are occurring with increased frequency worldwide despite the widespread use of vaccines. The highly contagious nature of equine influenza means that it has the potential to seriously compromise international movement of horses. FullStory


INFORMATION ON MEDICATION CONTROL AND ITS PROCEDURES

This Federation would like to bring to the attention of all its patrons the following directive put forward by the Federation Equestre Internationale :

1. All horses taking part in a competition must be healthy and compete on their own merits and not with the use of invigorating prohibited substances. Finding a prohibited substance means finding of the substance itself or its metabolite.

2. With reference to increased number of positive medication cases the Federation Equestre Internationale (FEI) has streamlined the procedure of notification and follow-up of the cases until the its conclusion.

3. Different drugs have different potential affect on the performance. Based on their potential affect on the performance, prohibited substances have been categorized into 5 grades. They are graded from 1 to 5:

Drugs in the Grade 1 & 2 : High potential to affect the performance,
Drugs in the Grade 3, 4& 5 : Low potential to affect the performance.

4. The grading enables the FEI to handle cases much more effectively without much delay. With this procedure persons responsible are able to accept responsibility for administering certain drugs and allow the legal procedures to take place without further action.

PROCEDURE TO INFORM THE POSITIVE CASE:

5 Whenever a horses' urine or blood collected during a competition is tested positive for a prohibited substance, the FEI will send a notification to the person responsible/ rider through his National Federation.

6. The Rider is solely considered as the person responsible. Competing when prohibited substances are present in the horse body, as detected by the laboratory testing, will then subject the rider to legal procedures.

7. If the substance detected is in the grade 3, 4 or 5, which means the drugs that have lower potential, and if it is the first medication case involving the person responsible the FEI will offer the Administrative Sanction.

a) then he/she is presented with a possibility to accept the penalties imposed by the FEI and resolve the matter quickly without a suspension and no publication.
(Note: Please note that this case shall remain on your records. Any repeated offence regardless of the type of the drug or the reason for its existence, shall constitute a repeat offence and thus may entail more severe penalties including fines and suspensions).
b) If the Person Responsible (PR) decline to accept the administrative sanctions, the case will be submitted to the Judicial Committee of the FEI which provides an opportunity to:

• request for confirmatory analysis of B sample,
• explain the reasons for the presence of the substances (failure of which will indicate the deliberate attempt to dope the horse)
• request a hearing in which to explain your position, yourself or through your counsel.

8. At the conclusion of the matter if the presence of the substance is established, the Judicial Committee will disqualify the person responsible and impose penalties, which are naturally higher than the ones offered administratively.

9. If the substance detected is in the grade 1 or 2, or in case of repeated offences - The judicial committee will follow all the legal procedures and if the presence of the substance is established by confirmatory analysis of the sample B, then the FEI will disqualify the rider from the event, impose severe penalties and may suspend the rider.

10. In show jumping horses: In addition to substances administered, a concern is also drawn towards the hyper sensitization of legs. Accordingly special sampling kits are developed for swabbing lower limbs of the horses to test for hyper sensitive substances. Please be aware that swabbing of legs will be a regular procedure hereafter.

11. With the objective of helping the riders, trainers and veterinary advisors, the FEI may permit the use of certain prohibited substances in its rules, which will be are reviewed every year.

For example for the 2005-2006, the following drugs are permitted:

• Oral treatment of gastric ulcers by the histamine H-2 receptor antagonists Ranitidine, cimetidine and Omoperazol.
• Treatment of mares for oestrus related behavioral problems with the substance Altrenogest ( e.g Regumate), provided medication form 2 is duly filled in and the dose and duration of treatment is as per the manufacturer's recommendations.

12. For few medicaments that are there in the list, thresholds levels are recommended by the Medication Sub Committee and are approved every year. The thresholds are adapted to only substances endogenous to the horse, substances arising from plants traditionally grazed or harvested as equine food and substances in equine feed arising from contamination during cultivation, processing or treatment, storage or transportation. Substances below the threshold are not actionable. For the details please refer the attachment.

13. Accordingly the UAE Equestrian & Racing Federation requests all the concerned to be more careful with regard to the use and withdrawal period of all the prohibited substances. A complete knowledge of the biotransformation of the drug will help to avoid the positive cases.

Amendments to the Veterinary Regulations

1. Equine influenza vaccination
(Modification to the Veterinary Regulations Annex VI).

"All horses and ponies for which an FEI Passport or a National Passport approved by the FEI has been issued must have the vaccination section completed and endorsed by a veterinarian, stating that it has received two injections for primary vaccination against equine influenza, given between 1 and 3 months apart. In addition, a booster vaccination must be administered within each succeeding 6 months (± 21 days) following the second vaccination of the primary course. None of these injections must have been given within the preceding 7 days including the day of competition or of entry into the competition stables".
(Effective from 1 Jan 2005)

Horses which have already had their primary vaccinations and subsequent annual boosters will not have to revert to further primaries but they will have to receive 6 monthly boosters after their last annual booster and within every six months thereafter. If a horse has missed one or two annual boosters for whatever reason - accident or illness - he must recommence the schedule from primary vaccination.

2. Altrenogest (Regumate)

"Treatment of mares for oestrus-related behavioral problems is permitted with the substance altrenogist (Regumate) under the following conditions:

a) it is only permitted for mares with an oestrus-related behavioral problem

b) the dose and duration of treatment must be in accordance with the manufacturers recommendations

c) a Medication form 2 must be completed by a veterinarian and submitted to the Veterinary Delegate before the start of the event"
(with immediate effect)

3. Salicylic acid (aspirin)

The threshold level for Salicylic acid has been reduced from 750ug/ml to 625ug/ml in urine and from 6.5ug/ml to 5.4ug/ml in plasma. The FEI has warned the Federation regarding the possible use of Toflexin, which can be purchased in the UAE without prescription and which contains high levels of methyl salicylate.
(with immediate effect)

4. Tongue straps and guards

Tongue Straps and Guards are not permitted in FEI competitions. (Effective from 1st January 2005)

Minimum Requirement for Identity Document / Passport

In all National and FEI endurance events, all horses must be presented for veterinary inspection with a valid identity document.

Please note that effective from 1st January 2005

All rides of 120 km and more in one day or 80 km and more over 2 days or more are considered as 3 Star rides. Accordingly the horses in such events must be presented as per the minimum requirement mentioned as above (ii)

FEI Rules and Regulations are available on the FEI website http://www.horsesport.org

Thank you for noting the above. If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact the Veterinary Department

Procedure to obtain an FEI Passport for a horse:

1- An application requesting for an FEI Passport must be made to the National Federation along with the copy of anyone of the following supporting documents:

• A copy of import health certificate
• A copy of any previous identity document - may be other national passport/breed certificate/vaccination identity document.
• If the horse is imported recently, a copy of sale deed, import health certificate with ownership details/a transfer of ownership letter from previous owner, if different from the import documents.
• Any horse which does not have a previous identity document must submit all particulars of the case to the Equestrian Federation which will refer it to committee for investigation. As the issuing of passports for these horses is a different process clients are urged to obtain documentation on all horses they acquire.

2 - A fee of AED 500 must be paid if the owner is not an account holder in this Federation.

3 - Once the NF is satisfied with the necessary documents, will issue a new Blank FEI Passport.

4 - The NF will issue the passport after entering the name of the horse, date of issue & expiry and ownership details in the passport.

5 - Once the owner/stable concerned obtains the passport, please make necessary arrangements with anyone of the NF approved veterinarians (list enclosed) to fill up the identification markings and the vaccination details.

6 - Then the owner or his authorized person must sign in the page no. 11 in the appropriate column and return the passport to the National Federation for authentication.

7 - The NF after ascertaining that the documentation is complete will stamp and authenticate the passport. Please note the Passport is an invalid document without the stamp and signature of the Secretary General and may be refused to identity the horse in any event.

8 - Please note that the Passport will not be authenticated at the ride site/show jumping arena.

II. New Policy in issuing FEI Passports

• The application for an FEI passport must be complete along with necessary supporting documents
• Incomplete applications will delay the issue of passport.
• Minimum time required to issue a new FEI passport is 2 working days.
• Once you receive the passport, make sure that it is being filled in by your veterinarian and returned to the Federation without any delay.
• Minimum time required for authentication and stamping is 3 days.Hence the horse passport must be submitted for endorsement at least tltree days before the event.
• Do not request for a passport one or two days prior to the event.
• No passports will be authenticated at tlte endurance ride sites/show jumping events.
• The signature of the New Owner in the passport is a must while endorsing the document.
• For Transfer of Ownership, the new owner must submit the Transfer of Ownership application form and also must sign in the Passport before submitting for authentication.