UF’s Racing Laboratory receives international accreditation

A University of Florida laboratory that conducts drug tests for the state’s horse- and dog-racing industry has become one of just five organizations of its type in the nation to be accredited on the basis of international standards.

This substantial achievement comes just two years after the lab was relocated from Tallahassee to Gainesville and four years after the UF College of Veterinary Medicine assumed administrative responsibility for the program designed to ensure fairness at the state’s pari-mutuel racetracks. These changes were part of an effort to upgrade quality control of the drug testing process.

The UF Racing Laboratory fulfilled the International Standard Organization’s requirements for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories, as well as additional field-specific requirements related to international standards for forensic toxicology. An international community of scientists in the field agrees upon these requirements.

UF’s Racing Laboratory is home to “a very talented group of scientists,” said David Epstein, director of scientific services for the National Forensic Science Technology Center, the accrediting body for forensic laboratories that performed the review of the UF facilities.

“The laboratory does a very impressive job of handling the approximately 100,000 samples a year that arrive in Gainesville from throughout the state and elsewhere,” he said.

Paul Kirsch director of Florida’s Division of Pari-Mutuel Wagering, said the services the lab provides are invaluable to fulfilling the division’s mission.

“The division is charged with ensuring that every race is conducted fairly, which has a direct positive impact on the integrity of the industry. Thus, drug testing is vital in the industry and the University of Florida’s Racing Laboratory is among the best of the best,” he said.

The laboratory was a bureau within the division until it was transferred under the direction of the College of Veterinary Medicine in 1997 and physically transferred to Gainesville in 1999.

“Being in the proximity of the veterinary college and having the professional talent and resources of the college at their disposal, the Racing Laboratory offers the division and the state of Florida state-of-the-art technology in canine and equine drug testing, as evidenced by this international acknowledgment,” Kirsch said.

Ian Tebbett, director of the racing laboratory, said: “People are really getting the message now.

“In terms of samples tested, we are by far the largest laboratory of any in the United States, and perhaps the world,” Tebbett said, adding that only 18 racing laboratories worldwide are accredited to ISO standards. “We not only test samples from Florida, but from other states in the United States and recently samples from Jamaica and Peru, so our international reputation is growing.”

The National Forensic Science Technology Center performed its final inspection at UF Feb. 26. The categories reviewed included laboratory management, personnel training, use of an appropriate quality-control manual, accommodations and environmental conditions, sample analysis methods, equipment, sample handling methods and security issues.