Urinary excretion of androstenedione in cattle as an indicator of possible illegal use in livestock breeding

✍ Scribed by G.C. Gatti; G. Zoboli; M. Zucchi; V. Ramazza; C. Cantoni

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1993
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 493 KB
• Volume: 275
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0003-2670
• DOI: 10.1016/0003-2670(93)80281-o

✦ Synopsis

Androstenehone (androst-4-ene-3,17-dtone) 1s a metabohte and a precursor of testosterone (17&hydroxyandrost-4-en-3-one) and 1s present m cattle The features of the molecule, also produced by synthesis, include an anabolpmg effect, Hrlthout or with a moderate androgemc effect Durmg a penod of 2 5 years, w&m a control prqect anned at the production of quaky meat, more than uww) unne samples from cattle and veal calves were analysed by hquld chromatography (detection hnut 1 ng ml-') Confirmations were camed out by gas chromatography-mass spectrometry In most mstances the concentration of androstenedlone found was below 1 ng ml-' Androstenedlone contents m muscle and plasma at levels from 0 02 to 0 72 ng g-' or ng ml-' have been reported, but only a few data on urmary excretion have been pubhshed Only 35 samples of 2000 analysed showed the presence of androstenedlone at levels exceedmg the revealablhty lnmt with values from 5 5 to 70 6 ng ml-' Most of the results showed that amounts excreted m unne are sumlar to those m tissues, I e , below 1 ng ml-' The recovery data m&cate that levels of urmary excretion much above 1 ng ml-' are to be considered as anomalous and need further mvestlgatlon to venfy then patholog& or fraudulent ongm