The Proteomic Approach as a Tool to Detect the Illegal Treatment of Cattle with Performance Enhancing Agents

Abstract

Despite the intensive control of illegal growth promoting agents such as sexual steroids, corticosteroids and β-agonists carried out within the European Union (EU) in cattle and other food producing species, over the last few years the number of reported positives has been very low, averaging about 0.2–0.3% of samples analyzed. These figures are in sharp contrast with both the results obtained on seized preparations and the data generated from histological surveys performed in certain countries on target organs of calves, bulls and cows (Biolatti et al., 2003). Indeed, in order to elude screening and/or confirmatory tests, the modern strategy of illegal treatment favours the use of combinations of low dosages of different molecules and “new” compounds synthesized by the black market, which are mostly unknown to the laboratories (Courtheyn et al., 2002). This warrants the adoption of different approaches, such as, besides the abovementioned histological screening, the search for biomarkers in biological fluids and organs, and, more recently, genomics or proteomics. In this respect, it is relevant to note that the genome sequences from several species have been completed, and researchers are now looking towards the next step: gene function (Abbott, 1999).