Sport and paté don't mix

Eating pork before a sporting event could put the athletes at risk of testing positive for the outlawed drug nandrolone, according to Portuguese researchers.

Jorge Barbosa and José Alexandre Galo of the Portuguese National Laboratory of Veterinary Research in Lisbon have confirmed that eating pork meat, in particular liver pate of uncastrated male pigs, can instil detectable concentrations of the metabolites of nandrolone in the urine. These levels can easily exceed the established limits of anti-doping control in athletes in high-level competition by 10 to 100 times.

Anabolic steroids, look and work like the male hormone testosterone. Sports authorities ban them because they give the user more than a sporting chance by artificially helping them boost muscle strength and cut down recovery times after strenuous training. Sprinter Ben Johnson was famously disgraced for taking anabolic steroids, while many other athletes, from runner Linford Christie to tennis player Petr Korda, have tested positive for nandrolone. While two Portuguese footballers, Joaquim "Quim" Silva and Fernando Couto were both banned for positive nandrolone tests. According to Carl Percival of Nottingham Trent University in the UK, a quick and effective way of screening many samples for anabolic steroids, such as nandrolone, is needed to help stamp out steroid abuse in sport.

The nandrolone molecule. Click on picture to get 3D interactive view (Chime plugins from MDL is needed).

However, the Portuguese findings, which confirm studies in the Netherlands, suggest that spotting the cheats may not be as simple as detection of nandrolone metabolites in urine.

The researchers writing in the Portuguese Journal of Veterinary Sciences (2002, 97(541), 23-28) recently suggested that "a constant investigation into all the facts and if necessary the review of some of the norms in use in this area," must be carried out when athletes are suspected of abusing nandrolone.