14 horses die before polo match.

deafskeptic

deafskeptic

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The source is CNN.

Fourteen thoroughbred horses dropped dead Sunday before a polo match near West Palm Beach, Florida, and a national investigation has been launched to find the cause, officials said.
Blue tarps obstruct the view of horses that died at the International Polo Club in Wellington, Florida.

Blue tarps obstruct the view of horses that died at the International Polo Club in Wellington, Florida.
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The South Florida Sun-Sentinel is reporting that as many as 21 horses in total have died between Sunday night and Monday morning.

State and local veterinary teams are trying to figure out what happened at the International Polo Club Palm Beach in Wellington, Florida, as team Lechuza Caracas prepared to compete in a U.S. Open match.

It's unclear what killed the horses but necropsies and blood tests were being done Sunday, the Palm Beach Post reported.

The U.S. Polo Association, the sport's governing body, is expected to open an investigation Monday.

Two horses initially collapsed, and as vets and team officials scrambled to revive them, five others became dizzy, said Tim O'Connor, spokesman for the polo club.

"A total of seven died on our property," O'Connor told CNN. Seven other horses died as they were transported to a Wellington horse farm and a veterinary hospital.
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Vets ran intravenous tubes into the horses, struggling to help them breathe, officials told the Palm Beach Post.

Some horses died immediately, but some lingered for about 45 minutes, according to Dr. Scott Swerdlin of the Palm Beach Equine Clinic, the Sun-Sentinel reported. The clinic is the International Polo's consulting veterinarian group, the newspaper said.

It was unclear Sunday what caused the horses to die, and necropsies and blood tests were underway, said O'Connor. Each team brings between 40 to 60 horses for matches. The ponies are continuously switched out throughout a match to keep them from overexerting themselves, he said.

The horses were between 10 and 11 years old, and were valued at about $100,000 each, O'Connor said, according to the Sun-Sentinel.
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A meeting will be held to determine whether Lechuza Caracas will compete at a later date, he said.

"Everybody is kind of in shock and trying to figure out what happened," he said. "Nobody can recall an incident in which this many horses have died at once."
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Wow. I wonder what happened?
 
Whoa... just from reading the title thread was enough to shock me! :shock:

I wonder what happened!?
 
omg poor horses sighs

might be mass murder on horses who knows as they are still investigating
 
:shock: That's bad... :(

I hope nobody killed them on purpose, but what else could it be???
 
21 horses have died so far. Officals think it's likey that toxins or drugs killed the horses. They aren't sure yet though.
 
OMG nooooooo

sighs!!!! i hope they can find something that they can stop from happening
 
I smell a rat and a big one for that menny to drop dead at once, it can't be a coincidence.
 
Here's an update from CNN
(CNN) -- The captain of a polo team at the center of the mysterious deaths of 21 horses told an Argentine newspaper that he has "no doubts" vitamins administered to the animals by a laboratory are at fault.
Veterinarian Scott Swerdlin talks with reporters Sunday about his Palm Beach Equine Clinic's response.

Veterinarian Scott Swerdlin talks with reporters Sunday about his Palm Beach Equine Clinic's response.


"For us, we are suspecting that something on the laboratory's part went wrong. We have no doubts of the origin of the problem," Juan Martín Nero, top player for the Lechuza Caracas polo team, told the newspaper La Nacion. The Venezuela-based team trained the horses.

For Nero, the vitamins -- either the dosages or the possibility of them being tainted -- are the obvious culprit.

"There were five horses that did not get the vitamin and those were the only ones that survived," he told the Argentine newspaper.

The deaths of the ponies, witnessed in full view by spectators Sunday in a dramatic scene where horses collapsed one after another, have jolted the prestigious polo tournament at the marquee International Polo Club Palm Beach in Wellington, Florida.

A memorial ceremony for the 21 horses is scheduled for Thursday at the U.S. Open Polo Championship, where officials hope to resume play after matches were postponed by rain Wednesday. The memorial service will include a brief speech and a wreath-laying on the field. Video Watch equine officials tell of strange ordeal »

As various state agencies investigate the case, law enforcement officials have opened a criminal investigation to verify that nothing illegal occurred Sunday in South Florida. The investigation is being coordinated by the state's veterinarian, Tom Holt.

The University of Florida College of Veterinary Medicine laboratories in Gainesville completed the necropsies Wednesday of 15 horses sent to the school. John Harvey, Associate Dean of Veterinary Medicine at University of Florida in Gainesville, in an interview with the Palm Beach Post, said investigators found significant hemorrhaging in several horses but the finding was not specific on a single cause.

Necropsies were also being performed by the state Animal Disease Diagnostic Lab in Kissimmee, Florida.

The U.S. Polo Association released a statement late Wednesday saying the organization "wants to get to the bottom of this tragedy and determine what happened to the horses in this isolated and unprecedented event."

While investigators involved in the case initially focused on feed and contagious disease, Nero's comments have brought scrutiny on the vitamins the animals were given before Sunday's match.

Nero told the Buenos Aires newspaper that while the team gives the vitamins to the horses the day of the match for energy, the dosage is always prepared by a laboratory. He said the vitamin is Biodyl.

"Yes. It's what is given to them always."

Biodyl is manufactured by Merial, a company jointly owned by pharmaceutical giants Merck and Sanofi-Aventis.

Merial's world headquarters are in Duluth, Georgia. Headquarters for Europe, the Middle East and Africa are in Lyon, France.

Reports have indicated that the Biodyl used in the polo match may have been from France.

A Merial spokesman, in a phone interview Wednesday evening with CNN, said no agencies involved in the investigation have contacted them about the horse deaths.

"I can tell you that we have no confirmation that our product was even used in the case, so we're waiting for results of the tests, like everyone else," said Steve Dickinson, head of global corporate communications for Merial.

Dickinson said that although Biodyl is not FDA-approved, "we're confident that Merial's Biodyl is safe when used as directed. It has been around from the 1950s and adverse reactions have been exceedingly rare over many years of tracking. Less than one animal in over 2 million doses."

According to Saadat International, a Merial importer, Biodyl is designed to be used for treatment of muscle disorders in animals, to combat fatigue, certain sicknesses and to help them recover.

A fact sheet on the drug says it is also used to help condition racehorses. Harvey said in the Palm Beach Post interview that Biodyl is a brand of a combination of vitamins and that the labs where the necropsies were performed would not necessarily detect it.

According to Saadat's Web site, Biodyl contains vitamins B12, sodium selenite, potassium aspartate semihydrate, magnesium aspartate tetrahydrate and excipient, an inert substance used as a carrier for other substances.
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Merial's Web site said the company provides "a comprehensive range of products to enhance the health, well-being and performance of a wide range of animals."

According to the Palm Beach Post, Harvey said Biodyl should not have killed the horses, if administered correctly. He said if someone cut corners trying to save money and compounded or tried to make their own version of the supplement, then it is possible an incorrect mixture could cause fatalities in the horses.
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I agree that something odd is going on. I can't help thinking this was done on purpose even though there's no proof ... yet.
 
Hmm... I wonder if PETA is secretly responsible? ;)

It could be someone who paid the vet to use something different so that they could win, but the vet didn't realize what would happen.
 
Further updates

Here's an update on this. It's from CNN.
A veterinary pharmacy in Florida acknowledged Thursday that it incorrectly prepared medication used to treat 21 horses who all died around the time of an international polo match last weekend.
Veterinarian Scott Swerdlin talks with reporters Sunday about his Palm Beach Equine Clinic's response.

Veterinarian Scott Swerdlin talks with reporters Sunday about his Palm Beach Equine Clinic's response.
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The deaths of the ponies, witnessed in full view by spectators Sunday in a dramatic scene where horses collapsed one after another, have shaken the prestigious polo tournament at the marquee International Polo Club Palm Beach in Wellington, Florida.

An internal investigation by Franck's Pharmacy in Ocala, Florida, "concluded that the strength of an ingredient in the medication was incorrect. We will cooperate fully with the authorities as they continue their investigations," the company said in a statement issued Thursday afternoon.

"We extend our most sincere condolences to the horses' owners, the Lechuza Polo team and the members of the United States Polo Association. We share their grief and sadness," the pharmacy's chief operations officer, Jennifer Beckett, said in the statement.

A memorial ceremony for the horses is scheduled for Thursday at the U.S. Open Polo Championship, where officials hope to resume play after matches were postponed by rain Wednesday. The memorial service will include a brief speech and a wreath-laying on the field.

The pharmacy said it prepared medication for the horses on orders from a veterinarian.

Liz Compton, a spokeswoman for the state Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, told CNN that the agency is awaiting toxicology results from the animals and could not comment on the pharmacy's disclosure.


"Obviously, we are going to follow any and every potential lead to get to the bottom of this," she said.

The horses were trained by Lechuza Polo, a Venezuela-based team. Its captain, Juan Martin Nero, told an Argentine newspaper earlier this week that he had "no doubts" vitamins administered to the animals were at fault.


"There were five horses that did not get the vitamin, and those were the only ones that survived," Nero said.

The horses collapsed one after another in front of spectators at the International Polo Club Palm Beach in Wellington, Florida, while being prepared for a tournament Sunday. Most were dead within an hour. Post-mortem examinations done by a University of Florida laboratory found significant hemorrhaging in several horses, but the findings did not single out a specific cause
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Hmmm, makes you wonder if it really was an error. Even with the admital of quilt, to mis-dose 21 horses? Each horse weighing a different amount etc... Granted to err is human, as was found when I went to pick up my husbands meds and was given 6 pills versus 60... sad sad day for the horses.. Plus the insurance companies will be out for the the payout on 21 horses! 100,000x21! Ouch!
 
I believe that some lab technicians are jerk. They should be held accountable because they were a sloppy job at the lab.

I wonder what did they give them the medicine? i.e. a squirting liquid in their mouth or crushed pills into the hay food.

I am not so sure about the vitamins for this special day because it was just a polo game. They can feed them with the vitamins everyday which is a "standard duty," but why this happened on that day. I wonder that they injected them with steroids for money that they want to win at the game. It might have affected their medicine with the steroids. It seems that they covered up their story - like this "Post-mortem examinations done by a University of Florida laboratory found significant hemorrhaging in several horses, but the findings did not single out a specific cause." Sorry, I jumped the conclusion. :(
 
webexplorer said:
I believe that some lab technicians are jerk. They should be held accountable because they were a sloppy job at the lab.

I wonder what did they give them the medicine? i.e. a squirting liquid in their mouth or crushed pills into the hay food.
More than likely it was done IV shot.

I am not so sure about the vitamins for this special day because it was just a polo game. They can feed them with the vitamins everyday which is a "standard duty," but why this happened on that day. I wonder that they injected them with steroids for money that they want to win at the game. It might have affected their medicine with the steroids. It seems that they covered up their story - like this "Post-mortem examinations done by a University of Florida laboratory found significant hemorrhaging in several horses, but the findings did not single out a specific cause." Sorry, I jumped the conclusion. :(
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Steroids would have shown up on the tox reports. I know that Vitamin B and Copper can be done IV shots. If it had been steroids, it would have been blasted all over the media. Like when the horses for the Olympics where tested.
 
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