Subscription Center
Apr 30, 2009 09:52 AM | 5
The 21 polo ponies that dropped dead at the U.S. Open Polo Championship in Wellington, Fla., eleven days ago most likely succumbed to an overdose of selenium, used to help muscles recover after strenuous exercise, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services has reported.
The source of the toxic overdose appears to be supplement injections the horses received a few hours before they began falling to the ground. Franck's Pharmacy in Ocala, which filled the prescription for the supplement—a cocktail of selenium, vitamin B-12, potassium, and magnesium -- has owned up to the mistake: "The strength of an ingredient in a medication Franck’s Pharmacy prepared for the 21 horses on the Lechuza Polo team was incorrect," Jennifer Beckett, the pharmacy's chief operations officer, said in a statement. "We can confirm that the ingredient was selenium."
It is unclear whether the horses’ owners plan any action against the pharmacy.
According to John Harvey, a veterinary clinical pathologist at the University of Florida (UFL) College of Veterinary Medicine in Gainesville, where 15 of the horses were sent for autopsy, selenium levels were ten to 15 times higher than normal in the animals' blood and 15 to 20 times higher than normal in their livers.
Frederick Oehme, a veterinary toxicologist at Kansas State University in Manhattan, says that selenium, which is normally given to horses in their feed, takes a long time to reach toxic levels in the body. "If indeed, it is selenium, and if indeed it was injected, they must have gotten a whopping dose," Oehme says.
Excessive amounts of this mineral, which is essential for proper functioning of animal cells, could interfere with the ability of nerve cells to control muscles, including the heart, he notes. And although owners and trainers sometimes use selenium injections to alleviate muscle cramping in horses, Oehme says the safest and most natural way to administer the nutrient, which is found at various concentrations in a hay and grains, is to supplement their feed.
Image of a polo ponies (not the ones that died at the U.S. Open Polo Championship): ©iStockphoto.com/ra-photos
Tags:
venezuala,
selenium,
polo,
ponies,
dead
More News Blog:
Next: Do hundreds of black holes dot the Milky Way?
Previous: Vaccine makers await critical swine flu samples; Swine flu won't be in seasonal flu vaccines
See what we're tweeting about
FlyingTrilobite Picture it #topoli: @iamdavidmiller and @oliviachow walking in slo-mo toward City Hall with The Chemical Brothers' "Galvanize" playing.
BoraZ Why a Science Experiment Gone Bad Doesn't Make Me a Criminal http://t.co/1jWbYNgtqw BoraZ RT @jayrosen_nyu: Public television’s attempts to placate David Koch. http://t.co/Bpn8E6sH1W A devastating account ...
Deadline: Jun 29 2013
Reward: $7,000 USD
The Seeker for this Challenge desires proposals for chemical methods that could rapidly degrade a dilute aqueous solution
Deadline: Jul 15 2013
Reward: $5,000 USD
SciBX: Science-Business eXchange, a joint publication from the makers
Powered By: 
YES! Send me a free issue of Scientific American with no obligation to continue the subscription. If I like it, I will be billed for the one-year subscription.
5 Comments
Add Commentit seems to me that someone was asleep while handing the supplement to be injected; such an error is inexcusable. Otherwise it sounds like foulplay, which I don't want to believe in.... Poor ponies!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisit seems to me that whoever prescribed or applied the injections was asleep, there is no excuse for such an human error.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thispoor ponies!
next time the MD prescribes me selenium for my health, I'll be very careful
"Mystery solved: Polo ponies probably died..."
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"Solved" and "probably" seem to contradict each other.
If it was solved, it is not probably.
If it is probably it was not solved.
horses, contrary to what most men, and some women, think, are not race cars, they die.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisthese animals were given this substance during TOO long a period, several weeks according to Polo players that know the circuit.
This crime against horses should be highly sanctioned so that perhaps all this doping will cease and polo will go back to the civilized game it used to be.
If this is a gentlemans game, why in the world are they drugging horses to play? Why did this team owner let this happen? Just because Biodyl is allowed in other countries, Biodyl or a substitute IS NOT ALLOWED in the U.S. Then why try and get a U.S. vet to write a substitute for it?? It is an ILLEGAL DRUG!! Accept the fact, it is NOT allowed in the US!! You, Team owner, are not suppose to be enhancing your horses to play better or longer!! These poor horses lost their lives, because you wanted to win. The horses trusted you!! Shame on you!! I guess Polo should be regulated against drugging as are other horse organizations have had done to them, BECAUSE they can not be trusted either. Sometimes people DO NOT do what best for their horses. This is why 21 Polo Ponies DIED!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this