To beef up animals quickly, most U.S. cattle ranchers treat their livestock with growth-promoting hormones. Among the more widely used drugs is trenbolone acetate (SN: 1/5/02, p. 10: Hormones: Here’s the Beef), a synthetic anabolic steroid. In April, Environmental Protection Agency scientists reported finding trace concentrations of two breakdown products of this drug in wastes released into a stream by an Ohio cattle feedlot.
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