The public hysteria over anabolic steroids has spread to the debate involving the use of banned drugs to enhance antler growth in Texas white-tailed deer. There is concern that hunters’ trophies and records for huge racks could be tainted or subject to asterisks suggestive of the steroid era in baseball.
Anabolic steroid use does NOT appear to enhance antler growth and may actually have the opposite effect. Veterinarian Ken Waldrup, with the Department of State Health Services in El Paso, addressed the speculation that anabolic steroids were being used by white-tail deer breeders at a recent Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) White Tailed Deer Advisory Committee (“Juiced-up … deer? Say it ain’t so!,” July 16).
Waldrup, who has studied white-tailed deer for decades, said there could be some public health issues if deer treated with antibiotics in pens were released and killed and eaten shortly thereafter. However, the threat of growing big deer with hormones or testosterones is overblown, he said, and there’s no practical application that would work. […]
“Please let me quickly add that anabolic steroids (i.e. like those used by Jose Canseco and others) will not do it,” he said. “At the meeting, I went through a short diagram showing how anabolic steroids could shorten or even stop antler growth rather than lengthening it.
“Anybody using anabolic steroids to potentially increase antler growth does not understand male deer physiology. Anabolic steroids also have all of the side effects in deer that they do in people, like joint damage and decreased sperm production (not a good thing for a breeding male).”
It appears that deer breeders who inject deer with anabolic steroids and testosterone may inadvertently shorten antler growth. It seems that high levels of androgens act as a “brake” to stop the growth of developing antlers. This pattern is seen in deer when antler growth stops as breeding season approach and circulating levels of testonsterone increase dramatically.
Dr. Ken Waldrup acknowledges that, while anabolic steroids are useless for enhancing antler growth, there are other drugs that that can be used for this purpose. Anabolic steroids do not appear to be one of them.
About the author
Millard writes about anabolic steroids and performance enhancing drugs and their use and impact in sport and society. He discusses the medical and non-medical uses of anabolic-androgenic steroids while advocating a harm reduction approach to steroid education.
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