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WELLINGTON - The U.S. Polo Association Board of Governors met Saturday in Palm Beach County and set up a committee to examine what safeguards exist for polo horses and whether the sport needs a prohibited substance policy. The committee will review the results of the investigation into the death of 21 polo horses and develop policies to ensure the safety of polo horses, a press release said. Executive Director Peter Rizzo said in the release that the committee will also examine policies from other equestrian organizations. "The USPA has a tradition of promoting equine safety," Rizzo said.
The USPA has a committee called the Equine Welfare Committee, but it does not have any rules about care for horses outside of actual matches. Equine legal expert Don Dufresne said the USPA is being proactive in addressing the need for such a policy. "They are recognizing that the safety of the horse is of utmost concern," he said. He said it would probably take a great deal of time and thought for the association to formulate a policy that works for polo horses.
Quoting anonymous sources, La Nacion, newspaper of Argentina, reported Friday that the 21 Lechuza Caracas team horses scheduled to play in Sunday's polo match were injected with a lethal dose – 10 times the intended amount of selenium, a trace mineral that is poisonous to horses in high doses. The newspaper reported that 0.5 mg/ml was prescribed but the compound actually contained 5 mg/ml.
Selenium is essential to good health but required only in small amounts, according to the National Institutes of Health. It is found in soil, some meats and seafood.
Franck's Pharmacy, in Ocala, has acknowledged "that a strength of an ingredient in the medication was incorrect" but would not provide any additional information. The Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services, the University of Florida's College of Veterinary Medicine and the Federal Drug Administration's Center for Veterinary Medicine declined comment Friday, citing the pending investigation.
Officials investigating the deaths said Thursday that they believed they have identified the chemical that caused the deaths but would not publicly identify it Friday, again citing the continuing investigation.
It's unclear at this point how the error occurred. The identity of the prescribing veterinarian has not been confirmed and the prescription has not been made public. In a written statement Thursday, the Lechuza team said a Florida-licensed veterinarian wrote a prescription for a compounded substitute vitamin supplement containing vitamin B, potassium, magnesium and selenium: "Only the horses treated with the compound became sick and died within 3 hours of treatment. The horses that were not treated remain healthy and normal."
The pharmacy's statement said that "on an order from a veterinarian, Franck's Pharmacy prepared medication that was used to treat the 21 horses." But some suggested Friday the tragedy could have been averted if the injectable vitamin compound had been sent to a third party lab before dispensing it. The compound was a substitute for Biodyl, the team said, a vitamin-mineral mix that isn't approved for use in the United States.
Jim Nahill, a Woburn, Mass., compound pharmacist, said compounders are supposed to make one product for one patient under one order. If a mixture is intended for use in more than one patient, it should be sent to a third-party lab to test "for potency, purity and sterility," Nahill said.
There could be any number of scenarios, according to L.D. King, executive director of the International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists, a professional trade association.
"If the formula was written incorrectly, is read or entered into a computer incorrectly or you put the decimal point in the wrong place," he said. "If the medication was sent to a lab they would probably find that error."
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/sfl-horses-dead-polo-wellington-palm-beach-042309,0,7796201.story
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