Livestock Steroid ‘Trenbolone’ Regenerates in Aquatic Ecosystems: Study

Anabolic steroids, given to livestock to boost their growth and increase their feeding efficiency, are capable of regenerating in aquatic ecosystem, shows a new study.

In the new study, researchers at the University of Nevada, Reno and the University of Iowa have discovered that the steroid 'Trenbolone', given to livestock, stays longer in environment, continues to endure in aquatic system and does not break-down. With this new finding, the researchers are demanding new regulatory approaches that assess the environmental risks of these anabolic steroids.

The steroid trenbolone was approved by the U.S. food and Drug Administration for use in cattle. This steroid is a schedule III controlled substance and it is banned for human and agricultural uses. It is a popular drug in bodybuilding and weightlifting communities. It also disrupts a woman's reproductive cycle. Until now, it was believed that the compound breaks down in the presence of sunlight (photochemical breakdown).

But this latest groundbreaking study claims that photochemical breakdown is not the end of Trenbolone's life cycle.

"Our team found that these substances, after a rapid breakdown in sunlight, are capable of a unique transformation in aquatic environments under various temperature and light-cycle scenarios where the process is reversed." Ed Kolodziej, co-author of the paper and environmental engineering associate professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, said in a news statement.

According to the researchers, this newly found mechanism may hold clues to the hormonal disruptions observed in aquatic organisms.

The study based on lab and field study showed that the trenbolone's chemical compound never disappeared in sunlight even in conditions that mimicked surface water. After extended sunlight exposure, a small portion of the chemical structure still existed and these remaining chemicals regenerated at night.

"We knew something unique was going on," David Cwiertny, Kolodziej's research partner from the University of Iowa, said. "In daylight, it essentially hides in another form, to evade analysis and detection, and then at nighttime it readily transforms back to a state that we can detect."

Studies done earlier revealed that low concentrations of steroids disrupt the endocrine system of fish. The steroids also reduce the egg production and skew the sex of a few marine species.

The study findings appear in the journal Science.