ANALYSIS OF HAIR SAMPLES FOR CLENBUTEROL IN CALVES

Clenbuterol has been shown to be a possible repartitioning agent in se veral food producing animals including calves. The substance has been illegally used to increase growth of calves in several European countr ies and livers from such calves have caused food poisoning in human be ings. Since high amounts of clenbuterol were found in the eyes of thes e calves we investigated the melanin binding of clenbuterol. We found rather strong binding of labelled clenbuterol to pigment in black mice (retina/iris, hair) but not such binding could be demonstrated in alb ino mice. We therefore fed calves with clenbuterol in doses of 5 mu g/ kg body weight twice daily during 3 weeks and analysed hair samples to gether with other tissues using a GC/MS method. We showed that it was possible to detect clenbuterol in hair samples from these calves after one week's treatment and up to 18 weeks (pigmented hair) after cessat ion of the treatment. White hair could be shown to contain clenbuterol up to 8 weeks after treatment. It would thus be possible to reveal th e illegal use of clenbuterol by simply collecting hair samples from su spected calves and analysing them with the GC/MS method described, wit h or without preceding immunoassay screening.