Press Release:
A total of 5218 horses were sampled for drug testing in 2016 under the FEI’s anti-doping programme, figures show.
There were 82 positive cases among them, representing 1.57% of the horses sampled.
Testing was carried out across 690 FEI events during 2016 – slightly fewer than the 712 events targeted in 2015 – representing roughly 15 percent of FEI events staged during the year.
The 5218 horses sampled in 2016 was slightly more than the 5096 sampled in 2015.
The figures are contained in a report on the FEI’s Global Equine Anti-Doping Control Medication Programme released ahead of the world governing body’s annual General Assembly, to be held in Montevideo, Uruguay, later this month.
The total costs to collect and analyse the samples was calculated at 2,452,150 Swiss francs, which is equivalent to about $US2.45 million.
This figure comprises 802,500 Swiss francs paid to testing veterinarians, 1,335,800 francs in laboratory costs, 188,600 francs in transport costs, and 125,250 francs for the test kits.
The average cost per event to collect and analyse samples was 3554 francs.
Figures show that the average cost per horse to collect and analyse the samples was 467 francs, just over half of which was laboratory costs.
An average of 7.5 horses were sampled for each event targeted under the programme.
The above figures do not include the administration, education and legal costs within the programme.
