Participants are reminded to take caution to avoid the inadvertent contamination of a sample with their own prescribed medications.
Careless personal use and security of human medicines within or close to the site of food preparation for greyhounds must be avoided.
Trainers are also urged to be careful when preparing meat and other preparations for their greyhounds after taking prescribed medication. Preparation areas should be separated and any human medicines kept well away from kennel areas. Hands should be washed after taking any medication and gloves may be worn as an extra precaution.
The forensic testing laboratories test greyhound swab samples for the presence of certain human prescription medicines as these may be intentionally employed to affect the performance of a racing greyhound.
Although there has been a series of positive swabs reported recently, GRNSW stresses there has not been an overall increase in positive results this year compared to 2014.
GRNSW is committed to remaining the industry leader in drug detection, having allocated $1.3m to its drug detection budget for 2015/16. The allocation of extra funds means GRNSW has increased the amount of swabs that are carried out.
There will also be further investment in research and education to address known and emerging risks. Any changes to testing procedures will be communicated to participants.
For more information, click here for GRNSW's Integrity Fact Sheet.
Any queries can also be directed to GRNSW's Veterinary Services team by calling (02) 8767 0500.
