On this page, you'll find
extensive
information leading on Pigeon Supplies information
and products to help you
on your way to success to find all you need about Racing
Pigeon Loft.
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On this page, you'll find
extensive
information leading on Pigeon Supplies information
and products to help you
on your way to success to find all you need about Racing
Pigeon Loft.
Regulatory bodies realise that the use of performance enhancing drugs can cause great damage to the sport. Pigeon supplies create unfair advantage to those that don't use them. Extraordinary performances can be obtained from very ordinary pigeons, negating all the effort and preparation put in by the genuine racer. In addition drugs can cause health problems and premature death to the helpless pigeons. Although rules are in place to stem the use of drugs, it is a nightmare situation to police. Pigeon supplies tests have to be carried out. They are both expensive and difficult to organise. Just getting the logistics right for drug testing pigeons can be a major effort. What criteria do you use in selecting a pigeon for drug testing? Do you test all the pigeons that obtained a winning position in a race or just some of them? Do you test just the winners or do random spot checks? How do you go about collecting droppings from these birds? How do you store the samples? Who is going to pay for the testing? Do you take samples after a race or before? What do you do if the winning bird that you want to test 'mysteriously disappears'? The other complicating factor is what drugs are illegal? Steroids? But these can be used legitimately as anti-inflammatories prescribed by a vet and small traces of steroids can hang around for a considerable time after treatment. Stimulants? But these can be found in many plant extracts including the herbal teas given to pigeons. Hormones? Who is to say that the pigeon didn't produce them itself? In Belgium where big prize money can be won regularly, they have started to address the problem. Recent steps have also been taken over here, in the UK, to do the same. The University of Ghent in Belgium has been recruited to test samples taken from British pigeons but there are still issues to be addressed. Pigeon supplies testing is reasonably expensive, it has to be paid for. Furthermore, what if the owner of the pigeon refuses to allow a sample to be taken from his pigeon? If he does provide the sample how long will the results take to come through, and what happens if a sample is shown to be positive? On top of all this, is that mistakes will be made. There are many examples from the world of athletics where mistakes have come to light. Athletes have had to endure a long struggle to clear their name. Biochemical laboratory tests are fallible. Where pigeon racing is concerned, will there be a right of appeal? Can a duplicate sample be tested at an alternative independent laboratory? How will the regulatory racing authority know that this has been done, and furthermore, that it was carried out by a legitimate laboratory? In spite of all the efforts of the testing laboratories, cheats have started to develop ways to get round the drug test. They now co-administer compounds to their pigeons that will mask the presence of illegal substances. The laboratories have now had to devise tests to identify these masking compounds. Gene Therapy With the advent of gene therapy things are about to get much worse. Using this technique, pigeons can be made to produce their own drugs. This startling new technology can also stimulate pigeons to make more muscle, and you can design the type of muscle into the pigeon that you want for any particular race, sprint or stamina. So what exactly is this new technology and how does it work? Well all it does is introduce new genes into the pigeon, these genes can be taken from any other animal and made to work in the pigeon. So for example if you want your widowhood cocks to make more testosterone to make them more aggressive, more sexually keen, you simply take the gene that prompts the production of testosterone and inject it into the pigeon. Within hours the gene starts to make the cells of the pigeon produce testosterone. If you want your pigeons to have a more efficient metabolism, being able to metabolise carbohydrates or fats at a faster rate, then all you do is inject into the pigeon the gene that causes the production of more efficient types of metabolic enzymes. If you want your pigeon to produce its own anabolic steroids you simply inject the genes that prompt cells to make them. Fantasy? Well it is already happening in the human world. Recently, in Philadelphia, the genes that manufacture clotting proteins were injected into patients whose lives were at risk because they could not form blood clots. Those patients are now fine, using the clotting factors that the new gene has instructed their own cells to make. In Paris, children with defective immune systems had specific genes injected into their bodies. These genes instructed their immune cells to make a protein so that the immune cells could start functioning properly, already this has completely changed the lives of two children. They can now leave the sterile bubbles in which they had to live, and they now lead a normal life. In the US patients with arthritis have been injected with genes that prompt the production of molecules to block the inflammatory gents in their joints. Soon cows will have genes injected into them that will cause them to make human insulin and secrete it in their milk. So they can then simply be milked, the insulin extracted and given to diabetics. This will solve the world shortage of insulin. This new technology is taking off in a big way, at least 400 trials are underway testing the new technology in humans, genes have been injected into 3270 people, but with it comes new problems. What is to stop athletes from being injected with new genes that produce proteins to enhance their performance. Genes can be introduced that will stimulate the athletes cells to produce their own anabolic steroids. Genes can also be introduced into the athlete that can cause his muscles to express a massive amount of fast twitch, sprint type muscle. Records will start to tumble and once one athlete starts to use gene therapy other athletes will all have to follow, or be seriously left behind. What is worse, is that the genes, once injected, cannot be detected. The authorities won't be able to identify which athletes have had the new genes introduced. This new technology has implications for the world of horse racing, dog racing and of course pigeon racing, and with pigeon racing, in which the prize money can be a considerable amount, the incentive is certainly there to use it. We strive to provide only quality information, so if there is a specific topic related to Racing Pigeon Loft website that you would like us to cover, please contact us at any time. And again, thank you to those contributing daily to our Pigeon Supplies website. << Return from Pigeon Supplies page, back to Racing Pigeon Loft Home |