Horse deaths remain a mystery, performance drugs blamed

Days after 21 horses collapsed and died at a top US Polo competition, no conclusive evidence has been found about what killed the $100,000 dollar animals, but team members of the Venezuelan squad are blaming a vitamin injection boost that was given to the horses.

(Picture: horse and rider at an Australian competition: The Age)

Juan Martin Nero, captain of the Lechuza Caracas team told Buenos Aires newspaper La Nacion that the horses had been given a dose of a French-made vitamin supplement called Biodyl, the Palm Beach Post reported.

“We don’t have any doubts about the origin of the problem,” he said, “There were five horses that weren’t given the vitamin and they are the only ones that are fine.”

Biodyl contains Vitamin B, selenium and chromium, and is commonly given to polo horses to help them recover from exhaustion, according to the Post.

“In general there does not seem to be any high incidence of adverse reactions,” Dr Christie War of the University of Minnesota told the Post, explaining that in normal doses the drug has not harmed horses.

Inside and outside the exclusive world of championship Polo, questions are being asked about how the horses are treated in a sport where there is no testing for performance enhancing drugs.

Palm Beach polo club president JohnWash told CNN that the U.S. Polo Association has been considering drug testing for years.

“People are calling for reform, and maybe that needs to happen, but until toxicology reports come back, and autopsy reports, we don’t even know if [Sunday’s incident is] anything related to that [drugs],” he said.

“I guess everything’s possible…I’ve heard all different rumors. I don’t know if I even want to go there and think about that.”

According to CNN, the Wellington tournament, where the horses died, was one of the top championships in the sport, on a par with the U.S. Opoen in tennis or golf.

“In my day any kind of performance-enhancing drug really wasn’t part of polo,” Dale Smickias, former US national polo team member told the Palm Beach Post.

Meanwhile investigations are continuing at the University of Florida Racing Lab, where drug tests are normally conducted on racehorses.

The Sun-Sentinel reported Tuesday that there was no evidence of foul play, but the horses had been struck by a “mysterious ailment.” It said that University of Florida scientists had found hemorrhaging on the 21 horses, but no explanation was offered.

Scientists have ruled out contagious disease because the animals died so quickly, Mark Fagan, Agriculture Department spokesman told CNN.

“The gross findings did not yield anything that would suggest a specific cause of death,” University of Florida vet school spokeswoman Sarah Carey told the Sun-Sentinal.

More lab-tests will be held on the horses’ water, feed and environment, as well as tissue samples that were taken as the horses lay dying on Sunday.

“Tissues from a live animal can reveal things that are not always able to seen in dead tissue,” said Carey.